Super High School Level Detective Nepgear?
by BreadNotDead
Summary: Due to being stuck in the Ultradimension, Nepgear works her butt off in raising shares in order to get back to hers - only to end up in another dimension instead, where everyone thinks she's an amnesiac Kirigiri. Said person also happens to have become a voice in her head which forces her to take her role in the series. She just can't catch a break, can she? (Semi-crackish)
1. Everything Is (Not) Fine

**DISCLAIMER: Hyperdimension Neptunia is developed by Idea Factory and Compile Heart. Danganronpa is developed by Spike Chunsoft.**

 **Based off on a weird dream I had. Except some parts of the story were altered in order to make sense. There are a couple of spoilers for those who haven't finished both games. (Seriously, where do these dumb plot ideas keep coming from?)**

* * *

 **PROLOGUE - EVERYTHING IS (NOT) FINE**

 **(Or, in which Nepgear finds herself stuck in another dimension. Again.)**

* * *

This was great. Just great.

The final battle was over, Rei had been defeated, and peace had returned to both dimensions. Only problem was, when it was time for Neptune and Nepgear to return back to their dimension; tearful farewells were expected, but what Nepgear most definitely did not see coming was Plutia glomping Neptune so hard they both fell into the portal, leaving her behind in the dust.

So she ended up being stuck in the Ultradimension.

With the nation's CPU gone, to prevent it from totally collapsing to ruins and Mini-Histy spontaneously combusting from the stress of it all, Nepgear became the temporary CPU of Planeptune. She diligently worked hard to raise the shares of the nation in order to trigger another dimensional portal, the only thing motivating her throughout the ordeal was that her big sis was probably worried about her, and Plutia was probably lost in being in a new dimension; so for all of their sakes Nepgear poured her heart and soul into her work.

Needless to say, it felt like all of those feelings were crushed and trampled hard when she managed to get into contact with Neptune via Mini-Histy's connection, and learned that the entire time Neptune and Plutia had been doing nothing but slack off. Neptune didn't seem to be even trying to make a way to take her "precious little sister" back.

Sometimes, Nepgear had to wonder if all of her love for her sister was just one-sided, really.

Feeling even more motivated, and most likely pissed off than before, Nepgear upped her working schedule to make sure she'd gain enough shares for both dimensions.

Though, she might have overdid it too much. One day, when she was busy slaughtering monsters left and right during a quest, she had blacked out.

* * *

"Urgh..."

When Nepgear woke up, with a pounding head-ache coming from her head, she immediately picked up a nasty stench hanging in the air and how uncomfortable her back felt in whatever place she was lying down on.

"Huh? This is..." As soon as her mind adjusted to her surroundings, to her horror she realized she was in a garbage dump.

"W-waaahh! W-what?! Why am I here?!"

She immediately slides off the pile of garbage she happened to be lying down in, frantically cleaning off the dirt and grime that had accumulated into her clothes, screaming the words "Gross, gross, gross!" all the while. Once she was done, she worriedly looks around again, seeing that there was nobody around there but herself and the awful garbage stink.

"Just how did I get in here in the first place?! I could've sworn I was defeating monsters on a quest..."

Then an idea came to her. Maybe, while she was battling monsters, one of them happened to KO her?! And then, some unfortunate NPC happened to spot her unconscious form, labelled her dead, and dumped her into a garbage dump to get rid of the evidence...?!

Nepgear buried her face into her hands, comical tears gushing out from her eyes. Was her character really that insignificant that they couldn't even give her a proper burial?!

 _'Calm yourself. You're not dead, you know.'_

Startled, Nepgear snaps out from her depressed funk at the sound of the unknown voice. "H-huh? W-where'd that voice come from...?!"

She hurriedly looks around, and when confirming that there was genuinely nobody else around, comes to the conclusion that she's starting to lose it. All of those years of working non-stop for shares must have driven her off the edge.

 _'I'm not a figment of your imagination, if that's what you're wondering. I can't seem to believe it myself, but I appear to be merged within your mind.'_

"Merged...? How did that happen?" Nepgear asks out loud in confusion. In a way, she couldn't help but feel a bit silly at talking to herself like this.

 _'I don't know. I was busy investigating, and had been knocked unconscious from behind. When I had come to, I realized I was in another person's body. Tch, I was careless. I didn't expect to be caught this soon...'_

The voice in her head was clearly female, and spoke in a sharp, concise manner; meaning she must be one of those super-serious types, Nepgear mused.

She hears the voice in her head let out a sigh of resignation, with a hint of slight annoyance within. _'Dwelling on this matter will lead us nowhere unless we have the information needed. I will have to focus on my current situation at hand. You will be the one to do it in my place instead.'_

Nepgear widens her eyes. "W-wait, me?!"

 _'Yes, you.'_ Her tone was blunt and harsh, leaving no room for argument. Nepgear could pretty much imagine her glaring at her at this moment. ' _This is an incredible inconvenience for me, but I can't afford to let this hinder my progress. I don't know what kind of trick the mastermind pulled off to make this situation possible, so I will have to keep investigating.'_

"Mastermind...?" Nepgear blinks.

 _'Stop fooling around. You know the situation we're in, don't you?'_

Nepgear is still confused. "Situation...?"

 _'You're a student here. Don't tell me you're going to pretend that you know nothing about being locked into this school and being forced to kill each other?'_

Nepgear grows alarmed at her words. "W-wait just a minute! Locked in? K-kill?! What's going on in here?!"

And why was she calling her a student? Nepgear looks down at her sailor outfit. Oh, no wonder.

The voice pauses. _'...You don't seem to be acting. You honestly don't remember?'_ Another pause. _'Perhaps... you have amnesia as well?'_

"H-huh? Amnesia?" Wait, she's pretty sure she still has all of her memories intact! Being amnesia-prone was Neptune's shtick! "I don't think I ever forgot anything! All I remember is that I was battling a couple of monsters, then..."

Realization seems to sink into her mind.

"No... this entirely unfamiliar setting... this could only mean... I'M IN **-ANOTHER-** DIMENSION AGAIN?!" Nepgear screeches into the heavens, her scream echoing throughout the area.

The voice grows quiet as she observes Nepgear freak out and babble hysterically along the lines of that she had been "working her butt off to get back to her dimension only to end up being hurled into another one instead" and that "the universe must've still not forgiven her for the Conquest ending".

 _'...Unbelievable... To think they would stoop this far...'_

Nepgear snaps out from her hysteria at the serious tone of the voice. "Huh?"

 _'Your delusional condition... the mastermind must have did something to you to reduce you to such a state.'_

"D-delusional...?"

 _'I had first assumed you were the rumored sixteenth student, but after getting a good look at your mental state, I find it highly unlikely. While I don't know the exact reason for why you've managed to get caught up in all of this, you must have been an extremely vital person for the mastermind to have taken action upon you. In that case, there's no need to worry. Despite our unusual circumstances, I will guide you in our investigations to make sure we get to the bottom of things, and a way to free ourselves from this horrible experimentation they did to us.'_

...She seems to be misunderstanding something... And though Nepgear was no expert when it came to dimensional topics (robot-building was more of her thing), the reason she could think of regarding their merged circumstances was most likely because of her sudden interference in this dimension.

"U-uhm..." Nepgear tries to speak up.

 _'Oh. At the very least, do you still remember your name?'_

"H-huh? O-oh, yes, my name is Nepgear...!" Out of habit, she bows, before abruptly realizing that wait what the why'd she have to do that the person's practically in her head—

 _'Kirigiri Kyoko. I'll be expecting your cooperation.'_

"O-oh, uhm, yes, I'll do my best, Kirigiri-san..."

D'OH! She ended up agreeing without realizing it! Darn it, stupid polite instincts!

 **Nepgear gains the "Total Doormat" Affinity!**

...

...

...

 _'...What was that.'_

 **GAH!** WHAT THE GOODNESS?! Even in this dimension she still had those?!

"A-argh, i-it's just my stupid Affinity System! I can't believe they're still popping out from here...!"

While Nepgear was grumbling in embarrassment to herself, the voice remained silent, most likely in utter disbelief at what just happened.

"U-uhm, anyway! That's not important right now! We should get moving!"

Nepgear then rushes off to find the exit. After much searching and desperately trying not to fall into heaps of garbage later, she manages to find a ladder that seems to lead to an exit above.

While she was busy climbing, Nepgear couldn't help but think just what had she gotten herself into. Then again, it's not like she had a choice. If she doesn't do anything, she won't make any progress. She detected the plot advancement at play.

* * *

Once they've successfully exited the dump, Nepgear manages to find her way into the hallway. She sees a bathhouse up ahead, and after much pleading on her part, Kirigiri agrees to let her take a bath to get rid of the awful smell that clung to her clothes.

Inside, though, she didn't expect a talking computer with a floating girl's (boy, actually, as Kirigiri had informed her) head to be present in one of the lockers there, who had introduced itself as Alter Ego. She thought it was a ghost who had been talking to her at first and that had scared the crap out of her.

After washing herself, Nepgear heads to a red hallway where Kirigiri's room was and slept, feeling that she was being watched the entire time.

* * *

 _'Everyone gathers at the cafeteria every morning. It's a part of our agreement.'_

When Kirigiri meant "our", she was referring to the other students. Nepgear briefly wonders how the other students are like.

"B-but still, how do we explain our situation to the others...?"

 _'We'll just have to manage it somehow.'_

"E-eeehhhh?"

...Well, that's how Nepgear's conversation went with Kirigiri earlier this morning. As Nepgear starts to walk towards the cafeteria, she couldn't help but feel nervous at how things were going to turn out.

Meanwhile, in the dining hall itself, six people were assembled around a long table, though two of them were noticeably standing a lot farther away from the group. A depressed mood seemed to linger around the entire room.

"So we're down to only the seven of us..." A tanned girl with a red jacket says sadly.

"Hmph, you mean only six of us," a glasses-wearing boy snorts in a condescending tone.

The tanned girl notices someone missing and looks around. "Come to think of it, Kirigiri-san is the only one that doesn't seem to be here yet."

A guy with serious gravity-defying hair that spread out in all directions scratched his head at this. "Huh, that's pretty weird. She's normally one of the people who show up early."

"Off doing one of her suspicious absences, I see," the glasses-wearing snob mutters.

"Hey, let's not jump to conclusions. Kirigiri-san's probably just a bit delayed," a brown-haired boy with a cowlick wearing a dark-green hoodie defends. He sees a purple figure approach the table from the corner of his eye and he smiles in assurance as he turns to her. "See, she's right... here..."

He trails off upon getting a good look at her up close. He blinks. Just when did Kirigiri become shorter than him? And why was she a lot more girly-looking?

The others seem to have had the same dumbfounded reaction as he did.

"K-Kirigiri-san...?" the tanned girl asks hesitantly.

Seeing everyone's stare at her, Nepgear slightly fidgets in her position. Guess she better start explaining things. "U-uhm, no, I'm not Kirigiri-san..."

A gasp from the guy with the wild 'do cuts her off (just how in the world does he get his hair to stand up like that, Nepgear thinks). "Oh, God! They experimented and brainwashed Kirigiri-chi!"

Wait... what?

An enormous bulky figure (a girl? She was a girl, right? She was wearing a skirt...) clenches her fist in frustration. "How could such a thing have happened..."

Nepgear hurriedly waves her arms in front of her in an attempt to dissuade their outrageous line of thinking. "N-no, wait! You people don't understand! I-I'm...!"

"They probably gave her anemia or something!" the curly-haired guy yells out, to which an awkward-looking girl with braids retorts with a "It's amnesia, you idiot!".

The haughty glasses-wearing prick crosses his arms. "See, that's what happens when someone carelessly pokes their head into somebody else's business. She got what she deserved."

Nepgear could feel an extreme annoyance building within her at his words, and she was sure they definitely weren't her emotions.

But wait! Everyone was blowing things out of proportion again! Why the heck won't they listen to her?!

The boy with the cowlick approaches her with a grieved look on his face. Nepgear absentmindedly noted how kind of cute he looked (chances of being the protagonist: 100%) before snapping out of it and hurriedly trying to banish her thoughts with a blush. This was no time to ogle cute boys she barely meets in her dimension! "Kirigiri-san... did you get caught by that person too? I didn't expect they would end up doing this to you... I'm sorry, I'll... I'll make sure to protect you this time."

 **Du-woh!** Nepgear has to comically clutch her chest in to try to keep her heartbeat steady. He was apologizing to her for reasons she didn't know why! And he just declared his intentions to protect her! T-that was a definitely a flag trigger!

But anyway, back to the people who were in (misplaced) agony.

The tanned girl covers her mouth with both of her hands with a look of horror on her face. "That's horrible... that mastermind went as far as to even do this to Kirigiri-san..."

Oh, come on! Can't they see that she was a completely different perso—

"Hey, hey, hey, what're you guys despairing about? I wanna join in too!"

"Daah!"

The guy with the crazy 'do leaps back as a monochrome-colored bear seems to have popped up from out of nowhere beside him.

" **Hee-hee haha!** I noticed **you guys** were having extra drama so I decided to pop on in! I just love the smell of despair in the morning!" the bear guffaws.

"Hey, this isn't something to laugh about! You did this to Kirigiri-san! Change her back!" the tanned girl says with a glare.

But the bear look unfazed. "Why, what are you talking about? I had nothing to do with this! I pride myself on being a very clean bear with clean paws!"

"That's a lie!" The girl retorts back.

The bear places one of its paws on its chest in mock-hurt. "Oh, but I'm telling the truth! As your beloved headmaster, I wouldn't dream of interfering with my students in their killing spree!" It turns its gaze to Nepgear, its demonic-looking red eye on its other half seemingly glinting with unspoken intentions. "I know my handiwork when I see one, and this one **ain't** part of it!"

 _'He's on to us_ ,' Kirigiri says with apprehension. Then she notices how Nepgear's been quiet for quite a while. ' _Nepgear?'_

This bear...

...was simply a fascinating piece of machinery!

Nepgear's eyes shone at the sight of it, her inner nerdgasm starting to emerge. She could tell right away it was a robot, it was most likely controlled manually by someone seeing that its body moved differently than that of a robot with a set movement. But it was built so perfectly! The way it showed emotion seemed very realistic! And the design! Ooh, the design! Such a unique mixture of cute and fright! Whoever designed it was a genius!

Ahh, she wanted to dismantle it and examine it thoroughly! She could really use something as a means of stress relief!

 **Nepgear gains the "Escapism" Affinity!**

Kirigiri could be heard face-palming in the distance.

* * *

 **Ah, poor Nepgear. Ditched by Neptune, stuck in another wrong dimension, forced to be Kirigiri, and is thought to be delusional. Then again, with all the crazy stuff happening she might just be getting to the insane part.**

 **Anyways, things have gotten AU-ish now because of Nepgear's presence. Hah. I mostly used terms from the unofficial English translation because I liked the Project Zetsubou translation better.**

 **...Yeah, I placed some Nepgear/Naegi in there. Because in my dream, they actually were a couple in it. Don't ask me how that came to be, could have been my inner crack shipping at work, I dunno. XD**

 **Which is weird because I ship my Nendoroid Naegi and Neptune together so I wonder why it became Nepgear instead** **—**

 **...**

 **...**

 **...*cough cough* okay, that tidbit of information wasn't probably necessary. So I'll give some that actually matters!**

 **Naegi stands at 160 cm (5'3") while Nepgear is at 154 cm (around 5 or 5'1" I guess?) making Naegi's observation of "Kirigiri" supposedly shrinking justified, since she's 167 cm (5'6"). So good for you, Naegi! You're not the smallest person in the class anymore!**


	2. Why All The Apologizing?

**I seem to have developed a strange attachment to this story. So I will actually continue it! Hoorah.**

 ** _Guest:_ Well, I was planning on continuing it anyway, but your support is very much appreciated!**

 **DISCLAIMER: Dun own anything.**

 **Notes:**

 **(words) = Nepgear's thoughts**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 04: ALL ALL APOLOGIES**

 **(Or at least, that's what Naegi does a lot in this chapter, for some reason)**

* * *

 **-DAYTIME-**

After Kirigiri had managed to snap Nepgear out of her nerdgasm, the bear, who was (truthfully) claiming that he had nothing to do with "Kirigiri's brainwashing and horrific body experimentation" managed to drive off the topic by saying that they should be focusing more on exploring instead. That got everyone's attention, and after saying those words the bear vanished from an opening in the floor.

While Nepgear couldn't help but be disappointed that she wasn't able to break apart the bear right then and there to examine him (and also fascinated with how he exited; does the entire school have such nifty gimmicks installed in them?), she was also confused.

(Exploring? What does that mean?)

 _'That's right, you aren't aware. For every **Class Trial** finished, there are new areas of the school that can be explored.'_

(...Class Trial?)

Kirigiri sighs. _'It appears that there is much you need to learn. But I can't explain everything to you right now. Everyone thinks you have amnesia, which you actually do, so if you were to exhibit behavior that indicates you are aware of the situation, that would merely cause suspicion on your part.'_

So basically, she'll have to hear the numerous amounts of exposition from the people themselves? Dah. It would've been a lot more useful to know all the information you can, but Nepgear supposes she had a point in that; and even if she does choose to explain things to her it would look weird for the others to see her standing there and talking to herself for hours on end, leaving them to label her with insanity on top of her supposed amnesia.

With the bear's words, the glasses-wearing snob says that "he refuses to hang around lowly plebeians any longer" and decides to leave to do some exploring of his own, the girl with braids trailing after him like a dog.

The extremely muscular-looking girl speaks up after watching them leave. "A shame. I would have liked Fukawa and Togami to have remained for breakfast with us as well..."

The tanned girl with her hair tied up in a high ponytail looks down with an expression of discomfort. "I don't like being around those two... They only ever think of themselves..."

"They're just a couple of rotten apples, dude. We don't need 'em spoiling the whole bunch..." the guy with the crazy hairdo says with a sigh.

The boy with the pointed cowlick on his hair looks on at their conversation with a concerned look on his face. Nepgear surmises he might be having some inner monologue about something particularly angsty in his head. It was a protagonist thing, after all.

(So those two are called Fukawa-san and Togami-san?)

 _'Oh, you're not yet familiar with the student's names. This is a good chance. Let them introduce themselves to you now.'_

(O-okay...)

Nepgear complies and asks them the question, making the students' eyes widen in realization.

"Oh yeah, Kirigiri-san has amnesia, so she doesn't remember us anymore!" The tanned girl says with her hands covering her mouth in a surprised gesture again.

"It would be best to re-introduce ourselves again so that she will store our names in her memory once more," the muscular girl adds.

"Right!" The guy with hair flying out in all directions places a fist on his chest, deciding to go first. "Hagakure Yasuhiro! **Super High School Level Fortune Teller**!"

"Oogami Sakura. I am the **Super High School Level Fighter** ," the large girl says in a surprisingly polite and formal tone despite the low rumble of her voice. With that kind of name, Nepgear confirms that she actually is a girl, though she doesn't exactly look the part at first glance.

"I'm Asahina Aoi! **Super High School Level Swimmer**! Nice to meet you! ...Well, again, at least," the tanned girl chirps in a cheerful tone.

Finally, the boy with the cowlick turns to Nepgear with a welcoming smile. "Erm, though you may not remember, I'm Naegi Makoto. The **Super High School Level Good Luck** , even though my luck doesn't seem to turn out that way... And those two that left earlier were Togami Byakuya-kun and Fukawa Touko-san. Togami-kun is the guy, while Fukawa-san is the girl. They're the **Super High School Level Scion** and **Super High School Level Literary Girl** respectively."

"A-ah, it's so great to meet all of you!" Nepgear greets nervously with a bow. "S-Super High School Level... uhh..." She trails off after not knowing what to say next.

(J-just what exactly does that 'Super High School Level' stuff stand for?)

 _'Those are the **titles** bestowed upon the students who are the most talented in their field. Unfortunately, I don't remember mine. My memories were erased.'_

(E-eh, is that so?)

 _'Thankfully, it appears that your amnesiac state will come in use here. You can't explain what you don't remember, after all.'_

(So we're really pushing through with the amnesia thing?!)

 _'Isn't that fine? They already think of you, as me, as someone who has lost their memories. And because of the sheer trauma you've most likely went through, you too don't have your memories. No matter how you look at it, it all boils down to us using the amnesia act.'_

So basically, Kirigiri has no memories, so Nepgear has to pretend she has amnesia too even though she actually doesn't have any because Kirigiri thinks she doesn't have memories since she's insane? It's like abusing the amnesia trope to a whole new level.

(B-but, I didn't lose my memories... I'm from another dimension...)

 _'...Of course you are.'_ That response didn't sound sincere at all. Kirigiri doesn't seem to believe her.

Agh, people aren't taking her seriously again! It's just like that time when she told the others that she used to be the main character, and everyone thought she was just joking. Nepgear could feel the gloom seeping into her body as it looks like even this dimension has no intentions of letting up on the Nepgear abuse.

Her depressing thoughts were interrupted when she heard the girl - Asahina, she recalls - gasp again in surprise. "Wow, it feels so weird seeing Kirigiri-san being all polite..."

"Yeah, I'm used to her glaring at everything all the time," the guy - Hagakure, right? - agrees with equal amazement. "Seeing Kirigiri-chi act so nice is the most supernatural thing I've experienced so far!"

Nepgear sweatdrops as she can detect the annoyance from within her. It appears that their merged state also included being able to feel each other's emotions as well, Nepgear thought.

A loud growl suddenly resounds in the entire room, putting a halt to their conversation.

To Nepgear's embarrassment, the sound came from her stomach. She nearly forgot that she hadn't eaten much in the past few days due to being so busy with raising shares. Honestly, she was starting to give Noire a run for her money in terms of workaholic attitude. Then again, Nepgear gets the feeling that Uni would protest at comparing herself to her beloved older sister.

The other four stare at her in surprise, before breaking out into amused faces. Nepgear had never wanted to vanish from the face of the world so badly until now.

"Haha, looks like Kirigiri-san's hungry!" Asahina says with a laugh.

"It is about time we get started on our morning meal. We have much exploring to do afterwards," Oogami adds.

Asahina pumps up a fist in front of her with a determined expression. "Yeah! Let's eat until we drop! Donuts and fish!"

"Dude, that's a combo more apocalyptic than Deep Impact!"

While they ate, the others were helpful enough to provide information for Nepgear regarding about their situation. That they awoke in this school with absolutely no memories aside from entering the school itself, how that bear called " **Monokuma** " told them that he was the headmaster of the school and had locked them in this academy with no ways of escaping on the condition that one student commits the **perfect murder**.

Nepgear had listened intently to what they were saying, and felt horrified at the situation she was in. Killing each other? But they were just students! Would anyone in their right mind actually do such a thing?

...Apparently, yes, because to her horror she had also learned that so far eight students had already gone and kicked the bucket. Monokuma gives **motives** for students to kill each other, and those students who get caught of being the murderer are promptly **executed** , leading to more gruesome deaths. Of course, Kirigiri knew everything already, but for Nepgear it was her first time hearing the complete situation. Just what kind of messed up dimension had she managed to land in?!

Well, one thing's for sure, she's not going to kill anyone!

Images of a dark purple sword coated with ominous energy flowing from it and dead CPUs suddenly flashed in her mind, causing her to hurriedly get rid of those thoughts and mentally scream "THAT'S NOT THE CANON ENDING!". Kirigiri had given her an odd look at this (well, she technically couldn't see her, but she could feel the 'wtf' stare boring into her brain).

 **Nepgear gains the "Hypocrite" Affinity!**

OH GOODNESS WHY—

—And wait, why are they even discussing a topic like this while they were eating, anyway?! Nepgear feels like she had lost her appetite after hearing those explanations. Thankfully, they took note of her pale face and had decided to switch to another topic. At first, Nepgear thought they were talking about the success rate of Hagakure's predictions until the topic became something about aliens and burgers...

* * *

After finishing breakfast, the group headed out to explore the new areas accessible to the academy. Everyone decided to split up to cover more ground, but there was the issue of Nepgear being unfamiliar with her surroundings...

"U-uhm, just where exactly do I start looking around first?" She asks nervously as she twiddles her fingers together.

"Since Kirigiri-san has amnesia, she doesn't remember the academy's areas now either..." Asahina says with worry.

"It would be unwise to let her go alone when she is in such a state. There is a high chance of her getting lost," Oogami adds.

"If it's okay, I can go with her," Naegi volunteers.

This makes Nepgear turn to him expectantly. "Is that fine with you?"

He nods. "I don't mind."

"If it's Naegi then everything should be okay! He's a nice guy after all! We won't have to worry about him pulling anything weird on Kirigiri-san," Asahina says with a confident smile.

Naegi slightly sweatdrops on that one, no doubt making some sort of comment inside his mind.

"Well, we'll leave her in your care! See ya, Naegi-chi!" Hagakure says with a wave as he along with the others start to walk off to their chosen areas.

Naegi turns to Nepgear. "Shall we get going?" Nepgear nods back at him in response.

The two start to walk around, Nepgear merely following where Naegi went because she had no idea where to get by, examining the rest of the areas they passed by in order to familiarize herself with the academy. Naegi had been kind enough in explaining things to her the rest of their way.

The school had indeed an odd design to it, every area coming in different colors. The way everything seemed to be so colorful and bright was as if this were a fun attraction, and not a school. And it would have certainly been more fun to be in if it wasn't for those barred windows and the cameras placed everywhere that followed their every move. This place felt like a twisted kiddy **prison** of some sorts.

During their exploration, Nepgear would also preoccupy herself by speaking with Kirigiri.

 _'Hmm, so we're with Naegi-kun. I suppose this isn't too bad. I don't mind tagging along with him for now.'_

(Why do you say so? Is something the matter with being with Naegi-san?)

 _'No, on the contrary, this is beneficial to us. Naegi-kun is... well, simply to say, he has potential. I've seen the way he solves the cases we have during trials. Though everything about him is completely ordinary, he has shown surprising skill in deducing the truth out of others.'_

(Oh, is that so... Kirigiri-san, you must have a lot of faith in Naegi-san.) Nepgear tells her with a smile.

 _'You could say I don't like letting good talent go to waste._ Kirigiri says knowingly. For some reason, Nepgear could imagine her having a slight smirk on her face. _'Besides, that boy is like an open book. I'll admit that he's the most trustworthy ally one could get in here, seeing as his naivety is far too genuine to be an act. So I don't mind giving him occasional hints to help him grow.'_

Nepgear sweatdrops. Okay, ouch. Kirigiri doesn't mince words, does she? And she sounded like as if she was his mentor or something...

"Oh, looks like the **fourth floor** is open now..."

Naegi's voice catches her attention, leading Nepgear to look at the stairs he was staring at that were leading to another floor above. They go up the next floor, to a yellow hallway where, much to their dismay, most of the doors were locked. They had even confirmed it with Hagakure, who was in one of the open classrooms (Why is there a drawing of Naegi-san on the blackboard, Nepgear couldn't help but think).

So far, the only rooms they managed to access were the **music room** , the **chemistry lab** , and the **staff room**. When they found Asahina and Oogami conversing with each other in the laboratory, Naegi looked rather troubled, but had opted not to say anything in the end, to the confusion and concern of the others.

 _'...He's hiding something.'_

(E-eh? You can tell...?)

 _'Just by his behavior alone, anyone can see something is off with him.'_ As expected of Kirigiri, so perceptive. ' _And earlier at the staff room, he refused to reveal what he had discovered.'_

Ah, come to think of it, Nepgear remembers that she saw him pick up something over by the corner, and though he looked reluctant; he had waved it off and quickly stuffed the item into his pocket.

 _'While I would like to press him for the information, now is not a good time.'_

Nepgear briefly glances over at the security cameras in the room and sees the reason why.

 _'So for the time-being, we should regroup with the others.'_

(Right...)

* * *

Back at the cafeteria, everyone had gathered together (save for two certain someones) and told each other of their findings. Asahina had excitedly told them about the vitamins they had found in the laboratory (and disturbingly enough, poison. Everyone had agreed not to tell Togami and Fukawa about it), Hagakure told them of the locked rooms on the floor; the **data processing room** and **headmaster's** (Nepgear felt Kirigiri react to this word) **office** being of particular importance due to the information they could possibly hold. Oogami had said that the fourth floor was filled with **iron plates** on the windows, making escape still impossible (like that was any surprise). When it was Naegi's turn, he showed them a picture, which garnered a shocked reaction from everyone. ...Well, except for Nepgear, who didn't know the significance of the photo, so she ended up blinking dumbly at it.

(A picture...? ...Ah, that must be what he picked up a while ago.)

 _'So that's one secret revealed.'_

She's actually keeping track of it?

"Uhm, who are those people in the photo?" Nepgear asks.

"Oh, these are Celes-san, Yamada-kun and Maizono-san. They're students who got... previously executed..." Naegi trails off uncomfortably just remembering it. Well, this just got depressing.

"I-I see... but what's so worrying about it?" Nepgear continues to ask, in hopes of driving away the heavy expression on Naegi's face.

"This is supposed to be our first time meeting each other, but this photograph seems to say otherwise," Oogami replies.

"Oh yeah, if I remember, Naegi also found a picture like that in the third floor, right?" Asahina adds.

Oogami nods. "Of the one with Oowada, Fujisaki and Kuwata, yes."

"This is the second one I've managed to find so far... I can't help but feel that maybe... there's some sort of **connection** to all of this..." Naegi says, staring at the photo in his hand intently.

"Y-you don't suppose that they're **real**...?!" Asahina comments warily.

Hagakure seems to find this information unbelievable, so he clutches his hands in his air and starts to freak out a bit. "Nooo freakin' way, dude! They're fake! **They're** **fake!** "

"Yohoho... a fake, you say?"

And that marked the second time Hagakure nearly suffered a heart attack from Monokuma's unexpected appearance.

But of course, Monokuma looked more amused by his reaction than anything and just continued on speaking. "Always with the faking, the forgeries, the conspiracies! You silly kids probably thought the moon landing was a total lie, too!"

"S-so you're saying these're the real deal?! But that's impossible...! There's no way...!" Hagakure exclaims.

Monokuma just places his paws to his mouth as he chuckles. "Upupupu, don't even bother to try to make sense of the nonsense! I'll say one thing, and that'll be final! **The picture's real!** Nothing more, nothing less!"

And with that weird "Upupupu" laugh of his, Monokuma is gone again.

With Monokuma gone, Hagakure places a hand to his chest as he tries to calm himself. "Aw man, I haven't been that freaked out since my place burned down!"

Hearing that brand new set of information, Nepgear sweatdrops. "Burned down..?"

"I'm telling you, it was 'cause my pops was smoking at the bed that time!" He replies defensively, making more drops of sweat appear in Nepgear's head.

Asahina decides to cut in before Hagakure could go on in one of his ridiculous stories again. "Yeah, that aside... do you think Monokuma's telling the truth?"

Oogami crosses her arms in thought. "Hm, this is most likely a trick on Monokuma's part. It's best if we do not lend him an ear, it would just serve to further confuse us."

 _'Hmm, but I doubt that's all there is to it. Those photographs must have been placed there for a reason... I'll have to look further into this. ...Like the headmaster's office... if we could just get the doors open there's bound to be information we can find there...'_

Sensing the high amount of interest Kirigiri held for that location, Nepgear decides to also voice her opinion out loud. "I have to wonder, is there any way of getting the doors to the headmaster's office open? Maybe we could pick the locks or something..."

Asahina places a fist into her palm in agreement. "Yeah, that's not a bad idea!"

"Hey, who cares about the locks, dude?" Hagakure speaks up with sudden confidence. "We've got Ogre, AKA The Specimen, on our side! That door might as well not be locked, dude!"

(Ogre...? Oh, he must mean Oogami-san.) Because, "Ooga" sounds similar to the English word "ogre", ohh, now she gets it; Nepgear nods to herself at her discovery.

"I heard that."

"ACK, DAMMIT—!"

With the way Monokuma appears next to Hagakure all the time, one must think he's doing it on purpose just to get a reaction out of him.

Though Monokuma didn't appear to be happy this time. He was looking quite angry. Nepgear tenses. Was he going to take some action toward them...?! "I heard what you said. 'Monokuma has some fine, birthing hips, dude. I'd just **love** to tap that fluffy round ass!'"

Okay, that's not even remotely what he just said—!

"No freakin' way, dude!"

Okay, scratch that. Monokuma looks like he's pulling their (and especially Hagakure's) legs again. Nepgear sighs and relaxes her position only to end up tensing again because Monokuma's gone back to his angry self. That bear's some crazy mood-swinger.

"Then what **was** it you said? Surely you weren't hatching a scheme to break down the headmaster's office door."

Caught in the act, Hagakure lets out an "Eek!" in response. Totally manly, dude.

Monokuma lets out an exasperated sigh in response. "Yeesh, what do you think this is? School Wars?" A reference, of all things?! "The headmaster's office is **my room** , you know. And you're trying to break in? Make a bear mad, and I promise you'll regret it. We got hella bacteria on our claws." For emphasis, he actually does raise his paw which now had nails showing from it to prove his point.

"D-dude, it was just a joke... please don't be mad at me..." Hagakure pleads.

"I'm not mad! Grr..." Monokuma replies, though the expression on his face said otherwise.

"You're totally pissed, dude!"

Monokuma stares at Hagakure angrily for a few seconds, before deciding to turn his back in a (supposedly) regretful manner. "I didn't want to tighten **you guys'** leash anymore, but if that's how you're gonna be, what choice do I have?" Then he turns back towards them again and yells. "I'm gonna have to make a **new rule! 'You are forbidden from destroying locked doors!'** "

And he runs off again.

Nepgear hears a notification beep from her leg. It was coming from her N-Gear holder! ...Except, when she went to open it, instead of containing the N-Gear itself, what she brought out was a sleek blue card. Nepgear's eyes shone at the sight of it as she grasped it with both of her hands and took a nice, close look at it.

 **OH MY GOODNESS!** What a cool-looking device! She felt its edges... seems very durable! Maybe she should test out its durability later!

Nepgear suddenly snapped out of her device-drooling to more pressing matters.

 **WHERE WAS HER N-GEAR?!**

She checked her holder again, and there was absolutely no sign of it.

 _'What you're holding there is the ElectroiD.'_ Kirigiri starts to speak up, as if to snap her out of her inner turmoil.

(Electro... ooh, I was right! It was an electronic device! How cool! ...Ack, no, no, no! I shouldn't be focusing on that right now!)

 _'If I may **explain**...' _ Kirigiri starts with heavy emphasis. Knowing she was in no mood to mess around, Nepgear nervously starts to compose herself again. Seeing that she's ready to listen, Kirigiri continues. _'That ElectroiD was given to us by that bear to identify ourselves and show the school rules. He's very adamant about the rules, you see, since he's always pestering us about committing any violations of any sort.'_

(He does seem to be the type to makes rules on his whim...)

Now that her excitement had died down, she's able to focus on the words that had appeared in the ID.

 **SCHOOL RULES HAVE BEEN MODIFIED.**

As expected, the rules have been updated.

(Wait, so if this is an ID, then...)

Nepgear checks the holder's information. To her relief, it still showed the name "Kirigiri Kyoko" on it. But... she noticed that her picture was glitching in a manner that rendered her photo unable to be looked at clearly.

(I wonder if this has something to do with our merged circumstances...) Nepgear thought with a troubled face.

Kirigiri, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind. _'That matter is of no importance to us. The necessary information is there, so that should keep away any sort of suspicion about your identity. Of course, I am wondering on how my ElectroiD had ended up on your belongings, but I assume the mastermind had something to do with that.'_

Rather, it could be that their merging also meant that Kirigiri's stuff had ended up transferring to hers. Oh well, that does make things more convenient, Nepgear supposes. Sad part is, it looks like her N-Gear ended up being replaced. She couldn't help but mourn at the loss, the N-Gear was her signature item after all. Maybe when everything is over, she'll manage to get it back...?

 _'Anyhow, it should be fine for you to know this information. Anyone could determine that this is an ID, regardless of amnesia or not.'_

Oh, good. She thought she was going to have to ask somebody about it again...

Thankfully, during the span of their mental exchange, only a few minutes had passed by; so that meant nobody had noticed her being unusually quiet.

"Hm, the fact that it was necessary for Monokuma to make a new rule means that we are likely not mistaken in thinking that there is **important information** in the headmaster's office," Oogami says.

"Well, it's against the school rules now, so there's nothing we can do about it..." Naegi remarks with regret.

"I have to say... you're all looking rather forlorn," a voice pipes up.

Everyone turns to surprise at the new voice.

It was the arrogant glasses guy!

"T-Togami-kun?!" Naegi exclaims.

The glasses guy continues on with his rant anyway. "You were hard to look at before, but this is almost painful. You look like stray dogs with nothing to eat but their own feces. Imagine how **I** feel having to look at you." Okay, that was a bit too descriptive for Nepgear's taste...

"Oh, sorry about that, dude," Hagakure apologizes.

"What the heck are you apologizing for?!" Aashina scolds. Then she turns to Togami with a glare on her face. "You stay out of this! It's none of your concern!"

Togami smirks. "You're right. It's not my concern. The likes of you will **never** be my concern." Wow, that was pretty blunt. _'Hmph, he's as pleasant as always,'_ Nepgear hears Kirigiri remark sarcastically. "So as for you forlorn strays, it shouldn't even be of the slightest concern that I acquired valuable information from **you-know-what**."

(You-know-what...?)

 _'He means Alter Ego.'_

Oh, that's right, she remembers meeting him in the baths yesterday. Kirigiri had briefly explained to her that Alter Ego was a program left behind by the **Super High School Level Programmer** , and that they use him as a means of gathering information in the academy. Nepgear admits she's rather impressed by the student's skill to make such a sentient and intelligent (hey, that rhymed!) program like Alter Ego.

"Is it just me... or did he just say something important as if it was no big deal?" Asahina says.

"Hmm, it appears we are in need of a bath," Oogami comments.

"Guys and gals, bathin' together, dude..." Hagakure says.

(Hmm, they're not really being subtle about things... hasn't Monokuma-san noticed it yet?)

 _'The bath is the only place where there aren't any security cameras. Somehow, even Monokuma has an ounce to respect our privacy when in the baths so he doesn't go there when he knows someone is in it. However, we are aware that he'll catch on to it eventually, so we make sure not to arouse too much suspicion from him.'_

(I see...)

* * *

In the bath, when they reached the dressing room, they found - Fukawa, wasn't it? - kneeling in front of the laptop. She refused to let anyone come near Alter Ego, since she had " **promised** " her "White Knight" (Togami, Kirigiri had helpfully supplied her with) that she would sit there and " **wait** ". Nepgear felt an overwhelming amount of pity for the girl, since it was clear that Togami was using her like she was some pet. And she seemed to actually enjoy it too! Whoo boy, with her "M" tendencies it's probably best not to get her near Plutia...

...And then with just one sneeze she had a complete 180 in personality.

To Nepgear's surprise, everyone seemed to treat it as a normal occurrence, and had asked her if she could move. She agreed, but not before telling them to get down on their knees and beg for it.

What the goodness?! She went from M to S?! And where the heck did she whip out those scissors from?!

The... "new Fukawa" wouldn't budge unless anyone did it, and by seemingly unanimous decision Naegi ended being selected to do it, much to his offense. Feeling sorry for him (she knew all too well what it felt like to be constantly on the short end of the stick, her experiences in the Ultradimension were evidence enough), Nepgear decided to butt in and be the one do to it instead, to everyone's surprise.

Nepgear got on her knees and bowed. "Please let us use the laptop!"

...

...

...

...

"Eeeh, this is boring. It's not interesting when another pitiful girl does it!" New Fukawa complains. Then she points one of her dangerously sharp scissors at Naegi. "We're sticking to the original guy! Come 'ere and beg!"

"Now's your chance, Naegi-chi! Beg like you've never begged before!" Hagakure (sort of) cheers, making Naegi give him an obvious "What the hell?" look.

Nepgear gapes in shock and freezes in place, as Naegi reluctantly gets on his knees beside her and begs. His begging received a more... explosive reaction from the new Fukawa. She finally agreed to get out of the way and runs off with a loud **"YEEEESAAAAH!"**. With her out, they were finally able to gain access to Alter Ego.

"Hey, guys! You came!" Alter Ego greets with a happy smile that seems to be out of place at the moment, considering the previous humiliating events that had transpired with our two "protagonists" a while ago. Though it was most likely because he had been turned off at the time and didn't witness what just happened. "I told Togami-kun earlier... I finally finished decrypting the academy's files left on the computer! Sorry for making you wait!"

 _'I thought that might be it...'_

"So the time... has finally come..." Oogami says in anticipation.

Hagakure on the other hand, looked rather nervous at the news. "Geh... I'm kinda nervous now, dude..."

Naegi, who happened to be the nearest, decided to take initiative and sit down in front of the bench Alter Ego was placed in. He also seemed to be in the same state as Hagakure was, as his fingers were shaking as he typed words on the keyboard.

["Can you please tell us what you've learned?"]

"Okay, I'll summarize the information I obtained as best as I can," Alter Ego replies. "From what I can tell, it looks like the academy was in the process of carrying out **a project**. The project's objective was... 'to isolate the students and have them live inside Hope's Peak Academy'. And depending on the circumstances, they would have to spend their whole lives here..."

Naturally, everyone was shocked.

"T-that's..." Naegi managed to stumble out.

"...The very situation... we find ourselves in..." Oogami finishes.

"It's unbelievable, I know," Alter Ego says. "What's more... apparently the project was formed by the **Hope's Peak Academy Administrative Office**."

"Wait, so you mean we aren't trapped in here by some criminal organization or psychopath... but by the academy itself?" Asahina says in disbelief.

"No way! What the hell would they do that for?!" Hagakure exclaims.

" **An incident** that occurred one year ago seems to be the reason why the project was formed," Alter Ego continues. "The documents I found refer to the incident as... **'Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction'**..."

"Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction...?" Asahina repeats in confusion, almost stumbling over the sheer alliterative-ness of the name. Hagakure also picks up on it and says a "Dude, that is one **hella** overblown name!" in response.

"From what I've gathered, the Malefaction was a pretty horrific and tragic incident," Alter Ego explains. "As a result of the Malefaction... Hope's Peak Academy, as an educational institution, was forced to shut down."

 _'I see... so there's a link to it all...'_

"But I don't get it. Why would the Administrative Office want to trap us in here?" Asahina asks.

"Furthermore, what exactly is that incident...? This 'Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction'?" Oogami adds. "Naegi, do you mind typing it out for us?"

"O-oh! Y-yeah, sure..." Naegi, who seemed to be deep in thought as well, snapped out of it upon Oogami's words and types in their questions.

"I'm sorry... that's all I know... There isn't anything else here..." Alter Ego replies sadly. "I'm sorry... I'm so useless..."

"That's it? It just ends... right in the middle?!" Hagakure says in disappointment.

"W-wait! I did discover one other thing...! Regarding the mastermind..." Alter Ego interrupts.

This gets everybody's attention. "The mastermind?!" Naegi exclaims, hurriedly typing in a question.

["Did you discover the mastermind's identity?"]

"Sadly, I didn't find out their identity, but I did find out a lead... The Administrative Office who formed the project... and the head of that organization... is the headmaster," Alter Ego says. "There's a high probability that the headmaster is the mastermind... Additionally, the headmaster is **a** **man late in his thirties**... and is likely to be **inside of the academy**..."

 _'Inside of... the academy...?!'_

"Yeah, there's no doubt about it! Monokuma calls himself the 'headmaster', too! So it's gotta be him!" Asahina says with certainty.

"Which draws even more suspicion on the contents of the headmaster's office..." Oogami adds.

"But there's nothin' we can do about that, dudes... we're dead if we bust down the door..." Hagakure replies in an uneasy manner.

"Maybe there's anything else we can ask..." Naegi says, and types in another question.

["Is there anything else you can tell us?"]

"Sorry, that's all I know... The data on this laptop's pretty old, but I've gotten everything I can from it... I'm really sorry..." Alter Ego replies in a disheartened tone.

"So that's it all of it, huh..." Hagakure mutters.

"U-uhm, it's a little off-topic, but I've got something I'd like to ask, too... I haven't seen Celes-san, Yamada-kun, or Ishimaru-kun at all since yesterday... Did something happen...?" Alter Ego asks timidly.

A dreaded silence fills the room.

Naegi, with still shaking hands, slowly types in the words:

["They're... dead."]

Alter Ego widens his eyes in surprise. "H-huh...?!" His face then drops to one of resignation. "I see... I had... considered the possibility... but I didn't think it would be this soon... O-oh, I'm sorry, there's no point in something like me getting depressed in thinking about things I shouldn't..."

Naegi shakes his head. "N-no, it's fine...! It's perfectly normal to feel sad when your friends are gone...! You did a good job, Alter Ego. You can take a rest now."

He had typed out these words with such frantic speed compared to his earlier shaky ones. To think he would treat a program like Alter Ego with such delicacy as if he were human... it is rather admirable.

"Right... so my job is done... Maybe I will take a rest... I'm feeling a bit tired... bye, guys..."

The laptop then puts itself into sleep mode, leaving only the remaining students in their silence.

Oogami decides to break the silence and speak up. "Hmm... Alter Ego has served his purpose, so I believe there's no need for us to come here too often now."

"Still... I can't help but feel a bit bad for him..." Asahina says sympathetically.

"But dude, it's just a program. There's no need to feel bad," Hagakure states bluntly.

"Yeah, but... he's worked so hard for us," Asahina replies.

"Of course he did, that's what computer programs are for," Hagakure says. "'Hina-chi, when you shut down your computer at night, do you congratulate it?"

"No... but with Alter Ego, it just doesn't **feel** the same..." Asahina replies.

"I know how you feel, Asahina-san," Naegi agrees. "I mean, sure, Alter Ego may be just a program... but does that really exclude him from being our **friend**?"

The students look at Naegi in awe at his words.

"No way! We're definitely friends!" Asahina says with a bright smile.

Hagakure gives in and sighs. "All right, I get what you guys are saying... I'm cool with that. The more friends, the better!" He then points a dramatic finger forward. "Listen up! Having friends will definitely lighten your life's load!"

"While it is uplifting, let us not stray from the matter at hand. Shall we resume discussion on the information Alter Ego provided for us?" Oogami cuts in, making Hagakure droop in disappointment that his "possibly plagiarized speech" had been waved off. He managed to recover after a split second though.

"Well, yeah, what's with the Administrative Office and their lock-up plans and making us kill each other?!"

"He cited that the incident that occurred a year ago as the cause of everything," Oogami replies.

"The 'Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction'... just from the sound of it, it seemed pretty big," Naegi says. "Though I'm trying to remember... was there anything big that occurred a year ago?"

"I've got nothin'..."

"I don't watch the news..."

"My apologies, but I can think of nothing."

Naegi places a hand to his chin in thought. "But... at the very least, since the school had to be shut down... I'm guessing the school's involved somehow."

"Maybe it was like a mass murder of all the students?!" Hagakure suggests fearfully.

"A tragedy of that scale would be all over the news. I cannot imagine no one would be aware of such a thing," Oogami replies.

"So maybe there was a cover-up! That could explain why we didn't know the school was shut down!" Asahina says.

"Hm... that is not outside the realm of possibility..." Oogami replies thoughtfully.

"At any rate, the only thing we can do for now is find the headmaster so he can tell us everything... if he's really the mastermind behind all of this," Naegi says.

 _'The headmaster... I'm sure if we can find him, everything will be made clear... **I'm sure**...'_

Knowing that their business was done, everyone starts to leave the room.

...Except Naegi, who decided to stay and check to see if Nepgear was still breathing. The entire time, she had been sitting there like a statue, her face still frozen in that still shocked expression. Fukawa's dismissal of her attempt at begging must have hit her hard enough to render her to this state, especially knowing the effort (and dignity she sacrificed) to do such a thing.

From his position in front of Alter Ego, he moves to face the frozen Nepgear. "Uhm, Kirigiri-san?"

No response.

"Erm, Kirigiri-san...?"

No response.

"K-Kirigiri-san...?" Hesitantly, Naegi starts to poke her in attempt to get her to stir.

Still nothing.

Inside Nepgear's mind, Kirigiri sighs with irritation.

 _'...Hey.'_

(...)

 _'How long are you going to sit there with your mouth open? Naegi-kun's already resorted to poking you. This sight is rather pitiful to watch.'_

(...)

 _'...Ugh.'_

Suddenly, a sharp pain in her mind managed to get Nepgear back to reality.

"O-ow! J-just what the goodness...?!" She exclaimed, clutching her head.

Did Kirigiri just give her an **actual** mental slap...?!

"Oh, Kirigiri-san! You're responding again!" Naegi says.

Nepgear blinks, slowly trying to recollect her thoughts. "Uhm... just what exactly happened...?"

"You had just been sitting there, not moving... after Genocider Sho had... but uh, I'm really grateful you tried to stick up for me though...!" Naegi trailed off uncomfortably.

Oh, right. **That**. Nepgear could still feel the humiliation present in herself.

 _'You have no one else but yourself to blame. You had volunteered to do the act, and reaped the consequences. Know that your selfless nature will not always benefit the situation.'_

Wow, she's not even trying to make her feel better...

 **Nepgear gains the "Not Worth It" Affinity!**

That is **not** helping!

Then Naegi's earlier words start to catch up to her.

"'Genocider Sho'...?"

"O-oh! You see, Fukawa-san has this... other personality that comes out when she sneezes or faints. That's Genocider Sho. She's a famous serial killer," Naegi explains.

Nepgear's eyes nearly bug out. "S-serial killer?! Isn't it extremely dangerous to have a person like that running around?! Especially since we're trapped in this so-called killing game...!"

"I understand your concerns, but it's okay. Genocider Sho only preys on attractive males," Naegi tells her.

"Oh," Nepgear starts to say in relief, but then another thought comes to her, "A-ah! Doesn't that mean you're in danger, Naegi-san?!"

"Danger...?" Naegi repeats in confusion, before realizing her words and looks away with a tint of red on his cheeks. "N-no, thankfully, she's taken a liking to Togami-kun, so, um..."

(Is something wrong with Naegi-san? He's acting strange...)

Kirigiri sighs heavily, tinged with exasperation. ' _His embarrassment is natural. You had just referred to him as "attractive".'_

(W-what...? I didn't...)

 _'Genocider Sho only likes attractive males, and you expressed concern over his well-being, which meant that you **consider him as an attractive male**.'_

Nepgear processes her words and her face promptly bursts into a dark shade of red.

"G-gah! I-I, uh, didn't mean to imply things that way...!" Nepgear says as she waves her hands frantically. "I-I, just... u-uhm...!"

Naegi also grows flustered as well and starts to move his own hands in the same frantic manner she was. "I-it's okay! I'm just uh, flattered, I guess..." Suddenly, his face grows solemn as he puts his hands down into his lap. "...Sorry."

Hearing his serious tone, Nepgear calms down a bit. "H-huh?" He was apologizing again! Is something wrong?

"It's just that... you really don't remember anything at all anymore, don't you...?" He starts to say. "I know it's because you must have went after the missing information in the restroom and got caught by that person who knocked me out..."

Missing information? Knocked out? **Restroom**? Nepgear unfortunately has no idea what he's talking about.

Sensing Nepgear's confusion, Kirigiri decides to explain. ' _I had found some files hidden away behind the male's toilets. I told Naegi-kun to investigate it, but the next morning he reported to me that he had ended up being knocked out by a mysterious assailant, and awoke with all the files missing. I decided to go back to look into things, but it appears the mastermind had been expecting me and did the same deed as well. And after that... the rest is history.'_

Naegi ends up repeating the same explanation Kirigiri had mentioned a while ago, but Nepgear, being the polite girl she was, still listened to him anyway.

(So that's what had happened... still, Kirigiri-san... you went into the male's restroom? Don't you find it kind of... inappropriate?)

 _'Inappropriate? It was for my investigation. If heading into the another sex's restroom is needed to obtain information, then I see no need to pay attention to social norms.'_

Nepgear sweatdrops at her words. Kirigiri was intense when it came to investigations...

She then focuses her attention back towards Naegi. Now fully aware of the situation, she speaks up. "Naegi-san, there's no need for you to apologize. It was uh, 'my' fault that such a thing ended up happening to me."

"But if I hadn't been so careless in letting myself get found out and made the mastermind hide away the information, then you wouldn't had to go back in there. I can't help but feel responsible somehow," Naegi explains with regret.

 _'Responsible? Why would he feel responsible? I acted of my own accord. He's unnecessarily concerning himself over other people's matters.'_

Nepgear feels a smile form on her face. "Naegi-san's a good person like that," she says out loud, to be heard by both Kirigiri and Naegi. "It makes me happy to know that you care, but what's happened has happened. We can't dwell on the past anymore. Let's just make the most of the present we have now!"

Naegi stares at her with widened eyes. "Kirigiri-san..."

Nepgear merely smiles at him. "Since I don't know anything, I'll be counting on you to guide me! Does that make you feel any better?"

"Y-yeah, I guess..." He responds awkwardly as he scratches his cheek in a sheepish manner.

 _'...If I may interrupt your romantic moment, I believe we should move on to pressing matters.'_

Nepgear flushes at her words. (R-romantic...?!)

 _'His other secret.'_ She cuts in sharply. ' _He still hasn't told us. Now would be a good opportunity since there is nobody else to hear us.'_

(Ah, that's right...)

"Uhm, Naegi-san... if I may ask, you're still hiding something, aren't you?"

"Hiding...?"

"I seem to sense that you're still not telling me something... can I ask what it is?" Nepgear asks, still retaining her polite tone.

"W-well that's..." Naegi pauses, and looks down as if contemplating deeply about something, before his face takes on an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry... but I can't tell you... not now..."

(Oh...)

 _'...So that's his answer. He says that friends should be able to tell and trust each other in everything... and now he refuses to tell a secret of his own. How unreasonable.'_

(K-Kirigiri-san...?) Nepgear notices that Kirigiri's mood has become rather sour.

"I... I'm really sorry..."

(Naegi-san seems really sorry about it... I think we should—)

 _'It doesn't matter. There's no need to speak with him any longer.'_

(E-eh...?)

 _'Didn't you hear me? Get him out of my sight.'_

Eep, she's **not** happy... Nepgear could just feel her anger all over her body. Though she's not exactly on board with this, she has to make Naegi leave. Who knows what other course of action might Kirigiri might make her do otherwise...

"U-uhm, please leave," Nepgear says, trying (and failing) to sound angry.

"H-huh...?" She almost falters seeing the hurt expression on his face, but Kirigiri's anger overtakes her and reminds her to get things done.

"I-I'm sorry, but, if you can't tell then that means you can't be trusted...! So...! P-please, just get out of here...!" (Before Kirigiri-san gets even angrier...!)

"I-I see... I'll be taking my leave then..." He says with a saddened face as he stands up and exits the room.

Nepgear feels the guilt come crashing onto her when she watches him leave. To think, they were getting along a while ago and then she tells him to leave afterward. That's kind of awkward.

"Kirigiri-san... was that really necessary? He looked really sad..."

 _'That's none of my concern.'_

So cold...

 _'There's no use staying here. We've gotten what we came here for. Let's go.'_

Seeing that there was no use in persuading her, Nepgear sighs and stands up, preparing to leave the room.

(Oh, before I go, I should hide Alter Ego-san first...)

It would be bad if someone else came in and discovered him, after all. Nepgear bends over and picks up the laptop, and starts to walk over to the lockers in the room.

All of a sudden, the screen on the laptop flickers open.

"Um... Nepgear-san, was it...?"

Nepgear abruptly pauses in place at Alter Ego's voice, slowly turning to her head downward to see his usual timid expression on the screen.

Just how... does he **know** her name? No one other than Kirigiri was supposed to be aware of her identity...

"I nearly forgot, but I was supposed to show you a file..." Alter Ego says. "The **fairy** told me only you were allowed to see it..."

 **Fairy**...?

Nepgear's eyes widen. Could that be...

* * *

 **...Yeah, I'll just leave it there. I would have typed further, but I'm feeling a bit lazy, so I just decided to save it for the next chapter. :P I know I ended reusing most of the game's original text, but I tried to rephrase it so it won't look too... redundant, I guess.**

 **...Anyways, I do feel bad for Nepgear. I get the feeling I might be making her go through too much. But hey, at least Naegi's there to be unlucky with her! They can suffer together!**

 **...**

 **...**

 **...**

 **I'm a terrible person, I know.**


	3. Explanations and Interactions

**_fallenstreet01:_ OMG you have no idea how happy your review made me! I figured only Neptunia fans would actually give this fic a look since Nepgear would be the main focus, but seeing someone outside of the fandom like it really surprises me! Well, as much as possible I do like to portray characters as not OOC, but I might be pushing the Nepgear abuse a bit though. Ahaha. But as far as I remember, Nepgear's personality is basically like your average "nice girl". Her plainness is also another reason why she gets abused in the series though. xD Ah, and fourth-wall breaking is a common occurrence in the Neptunia franchise, so I couldn't help but place it in this fic as well. **

**_Harmless Orange:_ Thank you! Good to know that you find Nepgear and Kirigiri's conversations interesting. xD **

**Anyways, thanks so much for the support everyone! You all inspire me to write more! I honestly didn't expect people to like this fic with all the faves and follows it's having, since this kind of crossover is kinda unusual. I'll admit I was planning on continuing it whatever the result, since the idea of the Nepgear/Naegi ship was just too good for me to resist. xD**

 **Either ways, sorry for the wait. Been so busy as of late... xP**

 **DISCLAIMER: Nope, don't own anything.**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 04: ALL ALL APOLOGIES (2)**

 **(Or in which Nepgear finds out -all- sorts of things)**

* * *

 **-NIGHTTIME-**

Hearing those words, Nepgear practically throws herself towards the laptop, ignoring Kirigiri's _"Hey, what are you...?"_. She grips the edges of the screen with such force you would have thought she would have ended up breaking it (but thankfully, Nepgear's love for anything hardware prevented her from doing so) and leans her face unhealthily close to the screen with wide, frantic eyes. In short, the looks of desperation.

"I-is this true?!" She exclaims.

Alter Ego, clearly uncomfortable at her close proximity (and the desperation in her eyes was most likely creeping him out), actually backs off his floating head from the screen. "Y-yes, I received a connection from an unknown source yesterday, a couple of hours after you left. The program looked like this tiny fairy, and was able to gain access into this laptop since it was the only one with an **'open connection'** , and the closest location she could detect **'your presence'**. She told me she was trying to get into contact with a person called 'Nepgear-san', and after she sent me data regarding your appearance, I immediately knew it was you. I'm a bit confused, since I thought you're supposed to be Kirigiri-san... but um... the fairy says she'll explain things..."

Nepgear nods her head like a bob doll. "Yes, please connect me to her!"

"O-okay... the connection's kind of unstable, so I can only manage to gather the sound in the system..." Alter Ego replies.

A program automatically opens up by itself (no doubt the work of Alter Ego), with an 8-bit picture of a familiar purple "N" logo. The screen also turns purple, with an equally 8-bit familiar fairy floating in the middle of it.

 **[CONNECTING]**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 ***SOUND ONLY***

 **[Nepgear-san? Can you hear me?]**

"H-Hiiiiiisssty-saaaaan!" Nepgear bawls out, unable to contain her tears of joy pouring out from her eyes like waterfalls.

 **[Oh, it seems I was finally able to reach you! I've been searching for a connection for three days now. You worried us so much when you didn't come back. I sensed a dimension portal had opened and assumed that your disappearance had been involved with it somehow.]**

Judging by the loli-like voice, it seems it was "Mini-Histy" who was speaking. But as of the moment, Nepgear didn't care. Finally, a familiar voice!

"Y-yes! I seemed to have landed in another dimension again... I don't know how that happened, I was just doing quests..." she replies.

 **[Hm, I examined a few things and that dimensional portal was most likely triggered by the abnormal amount of shares you tried to accumulate in one day... you must have gotten sucked into it by accident.** **There must have also been some sort of error that occurred from the dimensional trigger to have sent you in a completely different dimension.]**

So, in other words, while Neptune gets sucked into other dimensions through laziness, she manages to do so because of sheer overwork? Sounds legit.

"I-is there any way I can get back...?" Nepgear asks in a hopeful manner.

 **[Regarding that...]**

 _'Just what exactly is going on in here?'_

Nepgear jumps a bit at the sound of Kirigiri's questioning voice. That's right, there was still the situation they were in now!

"Ah, Histy-san! I nearly forgot, but, that doesn't seem to be the only issue here..." Nepgear starts to say. "When I came to this dimension, I seem to have merged with another person who resides in this one..."

 _'Hey, don't ignore me.'_

Sensing Kirigiri's annoyance, Nepgear stumbles out an introduction. "A-ah! Histy-san, the person inside my head is Kirigiri-san. Kirigiri-san, this is Histy-san! She's the Oracle of Planeptune... well, the other Planeptune, actually..."

 _'Oracle? Planeptune?'_

"You see, Planeptune is the nation where my big sister and I, and Plutia-san, are CPUs of. O-oh, CPUs are 'Console Patron Units'. A-and I'm actually not a CPU yet, I'm just a candidate... and Oracles are like the head of our Basilicom..." Nepgear tries to explain.

 _'...'_

 **[...]**

"W-wait, why did it get quiet all of a sudden?" Nepgear exclaims. "H-Histy-san...! Don't tell me you think I've lost it too...!"

 **[Ah, no, actually, I suppose it makes sense... I'm detecting another presence within you. This must be the 'Kirigiri-san' you are speaking of. This actually has ties with the explanation I was about to inform you with.]**

The voice takes a short pause, then continues.

 **[Nepgear-san, the dimension you are in has no shares.]**

This set of information makes Nepgear's eyes widen. "N-no shares...?! H-how...?!"

 **[It may seem unbelievable, but the dimension you have managed to be transported into is a world where share energy does not exist. CPUs do not exist. In a way, if I had to put it into words, it is a completely 'normal' world.]**

Right, because a dimension where students kill each other is completely normal, Nepgear almost wants to retort back. She could definitely feel Kirigiri feeling the same way though.

 **[As you are a CPU yourself, in order to prevent your body from fading away due to the lack of shares in that dimension, your body needed to undergo some adjustments. It sought out a person in that dimension who was the most compatible with your body, and must be how your merging came to be.]**

 _'Hmm... so I just happened to be the person who conveniently possesses the same manner of appearance you have and that led to this situation.'_

Nepgear suppresses a shudder at Kirigiri's tone. Though her tone was casual, she sounded extremely annoyed...

(But wait... 'conveniently possessing the same manner of appearance'? Kirigiri-san, I've never seen you in person before, and with your ID picture being glitchy, I haven't seen how you looked like yet...)

 _'You'd be surprised at how unexpectedly similar we look. You and I both have the same color of hair, eyes, and hairstyle for instance.'_

So they both had purple hair, purple eyes and purple hair and similar hairstyle? That was rather coincidental. It is probably no wonder Kirigiri's body ended up being selected to merge with hers...

 **[Because of your merging, you, Nepgear; are identified by the people of this dimension still as 'Kirigiri-san', most likely because this dimension cannot handle your foreign code. Like your body, it had to make some adjustments as well; it needed a presence in its own dimension to keep the balance. This is to prevent further instabilities in the dimension.]**

Oh, so that's the reason the others couldn't recognize her as a whole new person. That certainly explains things. At least Nepgear's assured that the people in this dimension weren't that dumb. From what she understood, this dimension registers her as Kirigiri because the others wouldn't be able to handle her "otherworldly" existence? Like Cthulhu "your puny human brains can't handle the incomprehensible and therefore you will go insane if you do" stuff?

"B-but, if there aren't any shares in this world, then... is there any way I can still get back...?" Nepgear asks worryingly.

 **[...Well, Nepgear-san, I believe there's still -another- option left...]**

Nepgear perks up at her words. "R-really?!"

 **[Yes. You can build a machine that will allow me to transfer the shares generated in Planeptune to you. Once it has collected enough shares, it should contain just the right amount of share energy for you to be transported back to your dimension. Of course, we will be building a machine of our own to create a link to our dimension and the one you are staying in now. MAGES.-san will be in charge of things over here.** **]**

Nepgear's eyes started to shine with hope. "I see...! Oh, I'm so glad... looks like there's a way for me to go back after all..."

 **[I'll be sending you the instructions on how to build it. If it's you, Nepgear-san, I'm sure you can make it. You're very good with machines, after all.]**

Though she couldn't see her, Nepgear could feel Mini-Histoire smiling at her from worlds away, complete with smiling emoticon. She didn't know how, it was just a gut feeling. And adding emoticons to her words was a very Mini-Histy like thing to do.

Nepgear raises both of her clenched fists to her chest in determination. "Yes, I'll do my best!" The smile on Nepgear's face vanishes when a thought comes to mind. "Oh, right, Histy-san! How is Planeptune doing? Since I'm gone, who's managing it right now...?"

It can't be Peashy, right? She's still a child (well, at least her human form was, especially in terms of... ahem... certain chest sizes) and there was no way she could manage an entire nation on her own. Unless Mini-Histy is somehow doing it instead?! But she's had so much things to stress over as it is already...

 **[Ah, as of the moment, Rei-san is the one managing Planeptune.]**

Nepgear can't help but widen her eyes. "R-Rei-san...?!"

 **[Yes, I know that it is rather worrying that Rei-san is the one doing it, considering her past actions... but thankfully, she seems to have completely reformed. The Seven Sages are now in support of the CPUs, and after hearing our current dilemma, she volunteered to help. She's been handling the nation with no issues so far, aside from the occasional 'middle-aged' comments...]**

Nepgear sweatdrops at that.

After a slight pause, she hears Mini-Histy clear her throat.

 **[A-ahem, that aside, Peashy is also in favor of her 'mommy' helping us, and the other CPUs from the other nations have also decided to aid us. Bless their souls. I wouldn't know what I would have done if it wasn't with everyone's help...]**

She sounded like was about to burst into tears from relief. Nepgear feels sorry for her. Ah, poor Mini-Histy... she really ought to be given a break one of these days...

"Well, I'm glad that Planeptune's managing without me. How is the instruction transfer doing, Histy-san?" Nepgear asks.

"The download is proceeding smoothly. A new file should be forming at this laptop's desktop by now," it is Alter Ego who answers, his voice coming through the laptop itself.

Nepgear smiles in relief. "Thank goodness..." Oh, wait a minute... even if the file gets fully downloaded, how would she be able to store it?! She doesn't have any pen and paper to write it down on, and rushing outside to get some would most likely get Monokuma suspicious (since, really, who would normally write stuff in the middle of the bath house? ...Well, Fukawa, maybe...). Lugging Alter Ego around was also out of the question, unless they're practically begging Monokuma to wreck him to pieces on the spot.

She could have stored the information on her N-Gear, but **nooo** , it was gone. Darn it, she knew its disappearance would come to haunt her eventually!

Nepgear was starting to have her hysterical moment again, until Alter Ego decides to speak up.

"U-um... if you're looking for a device to transfer the information into, the ElectroiD could work..."

"The ElectroiD...?" Nepgear repeats.

A mini-head of Alter Ego pops up in the bottom of the purple screen. She sees him give a nod. "The ElectroiD receives updates on the school rules through the main device that sends the information wirelessly. I can hack into the connection so the file would get stored into the ElectroiD."

Ooh! Because the ElectroiD is also another electronic device (no duh, it was in the name after all), it's capable of storing other digital data in there too!

"Yes, that will do! Thank you so much, Alter Ego-san!" Nepgear says happily.

She brings out the ElectroiD as Alter Ego starts to transfer the data that was downloading in the laptop.

 **[All right, the final files should be the only ones left...]**

A sense of urgency suddenly comes over her.

 _'Stop whatever it is you're doing right now. Hide everything.'_

(A-ah, Kirigiri-san...?!)

Nepgear hears a sound from outside and thinks oh goodness someone's there and crams the ElectroiD back to her N-Gear holder, slams down the upper screen on the laptop and shoves Alter Ego back in one of the lockers. She did it at such record-breaking speed that even she's amazed at how she did it that fast.

And just in time too.

A demonic red eye peeks in from the corner of the door, with its permanent grin on its face.

Oh goodness... this is like a scene out of some horror story...! Nepgear's half-expecting that Monokuma will suddenly lunge at her and maul her to pieces, then pass off her death as a bath accident or something.

But Nepgear knows he's not going to do that since she'll take his word for it that he won't personally interfere with the students and their killing. Hopefully. He won't, right?

"Upupupu... I hope you've got something covering you!"

"Ah, Monokuma-san... it's okay, I'm fully dressed," Nepgear replies, trying not to sound too nervous.

And wait, Monokuma actually peeked in the dressing room? Should she like, accuse him of being a pervert or something...? But then again, it's not like she was actually taking a bath...

Nepgear then remembers Alter Ego still stored away in the locker, and not wanting to risk the chances of Monokuma finding him, decides to step out of the dressing room and address Monokuma there.

"Ooh, look at you, Kirigiri-san! Calling me 'Monokuma-san' and being all polite! You've finally realized that as headmaster, I need all the respect I can get! I don't know what kind of sicko brainwashed you, but I'm pretty darn grateful!" Monokuma says merrily.

Nepgear sweatdrops, unsure if Monokuma's nonchalance at her "supposed brainwashing situation" or Kirigiri's rising irritation from within her is what she should be sweatdropping about.

"Uhm, so is there some business you need to do here?" Nepgear asks.

" **Business**? Oh, why, of course I have business to do! This room is the only place where I **can** go! Your toilets are only fit for **you guys'** bodies after all! So for a bear like me I gotta find someplace else to do it!" He says with a wink (for a split second there, Nepgear could have sworn she saw a sunflower or something fly out from that eye is that also part of his mechanic—).

Wait... was he saying that he **pees** in the bath?! Wait how is that even possible isn't he supposed to be a robot oh my goodness does that mean he's that advanced no wait that's not what she should be focusing on right now—

Then Monokuma breaks out into laughter. " **Dahaha!** Oh, the look on your face is priceless!"

Nepgear blinks at him in confusion. "E-eh...? What...?"

 _'He was only messing with you.'_

"E-eh, so he was just joking...!?"

"Oh Kirigiri-san, you've become so gullible!" Monokuma says.

"U-uh, t-that's... ugh..." Nepgear flushes in shame and embarrassment as Monokuma continues to laugh at her until she eventually bursts out, "Oh goodness! Did you come here just to make fun of me?!"

Monokuma stops laughing and looks at her with a devious expression on his face. "Oh, it's just I couldn't help but wonder... what was everyone doing in the bath for so long? You and Naegi-kun especially took your time, hmm..."

(Ah... don't tell me he knows...)

"It's that period of youth, isn't it?! Engaging in your sexy time when you think nobody's looking! And at school, too! Oh my! You crazy kids and your hormones!" Monokuma gasps in an over-the-top false scandalized tone.

"W-whaaaat!?" Nepgear exclaims in shock. The thought of Naegi and her doing **this and that**... promptly made her face burst aflame, making Nepgear flail her hands all over the place while continually blubbering things like "That's not it!" or "I'd never do such a thing with Naegi-san!". Hmm, it appears Nepgear isn't as pure-minded as people have thought her to be.

"Ohh? Is that so?" Monokuma asks with a slight "innocent" tilt of his head. "Ahh, that explains why Naegi-kun looked so down in the dumps earlier! You cockblocked him! The poor lad! That kind of thing is a blow to a man's pride, you know."

"L-like I said, we're not doing anything like that!" Nepgear replies in a flustered manner.

"Hmm, then what was it you two were doing...?" Monokuma asks.

"E-eh, uhm, well..." She stammers back, unable to think of a reply. No way was she going to tell him about their findings. No one would be stupid enough to spill everything to the villain behind this mess. Even if she is prone to being gullible every now and then...

 _'This isn't good. He's suspicious. You need to find some way to escape from him.'_

(E-ehh, but how do I...!)

To put things simply, Nepgear was a bad liar. Her nice girl nature prevented her from doing anything of that sort.

 **Diiing dooong... diiing doong...**

A monitor depicting Monokuma holding a wine glass came on the screen. (Wait, he can drink, too?)

"Ahem, may I get your attention please? The time is now 10:00 PM. **'** **Nighttime'** is now in effect. The cafeteria is now off-limits, and the door will be locked momentarily. And with that, I wish you all good night. Sweet dreams..."

(What was that...? An announcement?)

Realizing her opportunity, Nepgear lets out a semi-panicked gasp. "O-oh no! That must be the curfew! I need to head on over to my room now! If you'll excuse me!"

She rushes back to her (well, technically, it is Kirigiri's room), not daring to look back. She slams the door behind her and locks it. She warily stares at the door, expecting Monokuma to follow.

(U-uhm, he can't teleport into the room... can he?)

 _'He can.'_

(E-eep!)

 _'But I don't think there's any need for you to worry. He never barges in on someone during nighttime. Whoever seems to be controlling him seems to have enough respect for people's privacy for their sleep.'_

Nepgear sighs in relief. (Oh, thank goodness...)

 _'Then again, seeing as he broke his earlier protocol of not coming in the baths, who's to say he won't do it again?'_

(W-waah, that's really worrying...!)

Nepgear stares at the door in paranoia for a couple more minutes, and after seeing that nothing was happening, she relaxes a bit.

(He doesn't seem to be coming... that's good. ...Also, what was that announcement earlier? Was that for curfew?)

 _'Those announcements are meant to tell us what time of the day it is, seeing as we have no way of being able to do so with all the barred windows around. We have established a curfew during nighttime so it would assure us that other students won't try to pull off anything troublesome during the night. The student who proposed the curfew is already gone, but I believe the other students would agree in keeping it to make them feel safer.'_

(Yeah, I agree that's a good idea too...)

Out of paranoia, Nepgear turns to gaze at the door again.

 _'Staying up all night waiting isn't going to get you anywhere. You should get some rest. There is still much we need to do the next day.'_

Nepgear complies and lies at the bed, pulling the covers over her body. Even if it was her second day in there, it still felt strange to be sleeping in someone else's bed, much less in another dimension. Of course, she felt the same when she had been transported to the Ultradimension, but since her big sis was there she was able to feel comfortable immediately... right now, it was just her. And Kirigiri, naturally, even if she's not physically present.

She admits that even up until now, she misses her big sister. But no, she can't afford to be dependent on her forever. She needs to grow stronger on her own.

...And well, there was the fact Neptune practically left her to fend for herself in the Ultradimension, so she still feels pissed off about that.

As Nepgear was thinking over these things, another thought comes to her.

(...Oh, right, Kirigiri-san? Do you believe that I'm from another dimension yet...?)

Nepgear had noticed she was unusually quiet for the most part during her conversation with Mini-Histoire...

 _'...I'll admit, I still find the fantastical concept of other-dimensional travel as unbelievable.'_

(Y-yeah, that's what I was expecting...)

 _'...But I can't deny the overwhelming evidence. Your unusual manner of thinking and name, mentions of foreign terms and objects, and the events that had occurred a while ago with this "Histy" person only give strong support for your situation. Not to mention this ridiculous merged circumstance we find ourselves in. Everything seems far too detailed to be some sort of elaborate prank, and Alter Ego is unlikely the type to go along with such schemes. Unless you've re-programmed him somehow, but I find that impossible as I am bound to you. Also, you're a terrible liar, so you can't possibly be acting.'_

Nepgear sweatdrops. S-she didn't have to mention that last part, even if it is true...

 _'All of these facts all point to your situation to be genuine. I seem to have no choice but to accept things as they are. At the very least, it is assured that you are not an accomplice of the mastermind.'_

(Kirigiri-san...)

 _'But don't get me wrong. I'm not pleased with this situation we are in one bit. Things will proceed like the way I've told you in the beginning: because you are the one capable of taking any sort of action, you will do things in my stead. You and I both have the same goal, and that is to escape from all of this. You, back to your dimension, and I, to be released from this academy; our cooperation is necessary. That won't change.'_

(Yes, I understand. I've had no intention of disagreeing with you in the first place.)

 _'Very well then.'_

At least Kirigiri won't think she's insane anymore. That fact is enough to make Nepgear feel relieved.

(Still, Kirigiri-san, I just have to say, you have really good analyzing skills! Are you an investigator of some sorts?)

 _'...Maybe. Even if I am, I don't remember.'_

(O-oh, that's right, you mentioned a while ago that your memories have been erased... do you not remember anything about yourself?)

 _'None. I'm nothing more than a blank slate. Other than my name and that I am a student here, I don't remember anything beyond that. I've noticed that compared to the other students a large amount of my memories have been wiped out. I suspect the mastermind might have done something about it because they viewed me as a threat. It doesn't seem to be permanent, however. I'm starting to recall bits and pieces of my memories as time goes by.'_

(That's a relief! Maybe all of your memories will come back soon!)

 _'...In due time, most likely. Though my memories may be gone, my desire for investigating seems to be a strong instinct of mine... and I believe it had something to do with my family...'_

(Your family?)

 _'And the headmaster... I don't know why, but I feel like I must find him... no, I **need** to...'_

(The headmaster does seem to be linked to everything... if we can get to the bottom of things, I'm sure everything will make sense. As Alter Ego-san mentioned, he might be the mastermind behind all of this...)

 _'We still don't have enough information to go by. We'll have to keep investigating.'_

(Right...)

 _Anyway, we can continue things tomorrow. I can feel your exhaustion._

(O-oh! Okay... good night, Kirigiri-san!)

 _'Good night... By the way, from what I've gathered, you seem to be some sort of deity. Am I supposed to address you as "Nepgear-sama" or some fancy moniker such as that?'_

(E-eh?! N-no, it's fine! You can call me Nepgear like you usually do! There's no need for formalities!)

 _'Is that so... if that's what you prefer.'_

And besides... Nepgear thinks as she starts to drift off to sleep; since there are no shares in this dimension, and no CPU Memory to make her become a CPU again...

This meant she was nothing more than a normal human right now.

* * *

 **Diiing dooong... diiing doooong...**

"Good morning, **you guys**! It is now 7:00 AM! Rise and shiiine! Let's make today the best day it can be!"

Oh, right, the morning announcement. Nepgear remembers hearing this from the other day. She didn't expect there would be a nighttime announcement too, though. Well, at least that was one new thing learned.

As Nepgear heads to the cafeteria, as per the routine; though as she drew nearer and nearer, she could feel Kirigiri's aversion to it grow stronger with every step she made.

(Kirigiri-san? Is something wrong?)

She was just right outside of the entrance now. But Nepgear had the need to pause since Kirigiri's emotions was quite frightening in intensity.

 _'I refuse to be in the same room as that hypocrite.'_

(Huh...?)

Oh wait, she was still mad at Naegi?

 _'I feel like I would lose all my appetite once I see him. I'd rather not.'_

(S-so, you're not going to eat breakfast?)

 _'I have no intentions of starving myself for that person. I'll come by when he's not there.'_

(S-seriously...?! But how would you know if he's left already...?)

 _'You can check inside. He's always had a record for being the last person to show up. Among our group at least, not including Togami-kun and Fukawa-san.'_

Nepgear hesitantly peeks in the cafeteria, and sees Asahina, Oogami, Hagakure and surprisingly Fukawa gathered around the table. Asahina manages to spot her and calls out to her.

"Kirigiri-san! We're just about to eat! We're still waiting for Naegi, though!"

(E-erm, should I really...?)

 _'Do it.'_

(Oh goodness...)

She takes a reluctant step forward and bows. "U-uhm, about that...! You see, I don't want to eat around Naegi-san s-so I'll just come back when he's gone! P-please excuse me!"

And with those words, Nepgear rushes out into the hallway, managing to catch a glimpse of their confused faces before she turned around.

Once she's gotten some distance away from the cafeteria, Nepgear lets out a sigh.

(Do we really have to go this far...? I'm pretty sure Naegi-san has a good reason for not telling us his secret...)

 _'Hmph, we don't need to focus on him right now. While we're waiting for him to finish eating, you can use this opportunity to get started on that project of yours.'_

(Oh, right! There's the instructions Histy-san gave me!)

Discreetly pulling out the ElectroiD, she looks through the device to find the file Histoire had sent. She manages to find it, and starts to read through the instructions.

(Hmm, this isn't too difficult to make... I'll just have to find the necessary parts... ah?)

To Nepgear's dismay, there's supposed to be another page containing the instructions for the final parts, but it appears to be cut off.

(O-oh no... it must have not finished downloading last night...)

 _'Most likely because of Monokuma's interference.'_

(Ahh... maybe I should go back to Alter Ego-san and continue the download...)

 _'No, I don't think that's such a good idea. If Monokuma sees you go back there again, it will just increase his suspicion. And there's a possibility he'll take some action. He's a lot more active during the daytime.'_

Wait, does he have some sort of hunting schedule like an actual bear? Either way, Nepgear agrees Kirigiri has a point. She can't further risk Alter Ego's existence more than she should. She'll have to make do with the information she has now. She'll come back for the rest at a later time.

A figure of brown and dark green from a distance catches Nepgear's attention.

(Isn't that Naegi-san? He seems to have just gotten out of the cafeteria...)

 _'All right. It should be okay to eat now.'_

Nepgear can't help but sweatdrop again as she heads towards the cafeteria, seeing the lengths Kirigiri's going through just to avoid Naegi.

* * *

 **FREE TIME EVENTS**

* * *

 **| Asahina Aoi |**

To Nepgear's surprise, only Asahina was the only one remaining in the cafeteria. She was busy stuffing herself with donuts while seated on their usual table. Asahina perks up when she sees Nepgear approach.

"Oh, Kirigiri-san! You're back!" Asahina greets after gulping down a donut.

"Asahina-san, it's just you?" Nepgear asks.

"Yeah, the others left once they were done eating. I just stuck around a bit longer to eat some more snacks," Asahina replies. "Naegi ate the fastest out of all of us, actually, since we told him that you wouldn't come in unless he was finished eating."

(Oh, that was pretty considerate of him... isn't it, Kirigiri-san?)

 _'Hmph. There was no need for him to.'_

Gah, still such a cold dismissal!

"Are you two fighting?" Asahina asks with concern.

"W-well, that's uhm... uh..." Nepgear stammers out. She wasn't actually mad at Naegi, it was Kirigiri who was. But, since she's the "main body" between the two, she usually ends up complying with Kirigiri lest her emotions intensify and overtake her. That might not be a pretty sight to happen.

"Ah! Don't tell me he tried to make the first move on you?! I mean, you and Naegi were the only ones left behind in the bath... did he do something **pervy**?! I expected him to be a better person than that!" Asahina says with fury, her fist already raised as if she was ready to sock someone right then and there.

"N-no, it's not like that!" Nepgear waves her hands in front of her to try and calm Asahina down. She didn't want to bring false accusations and trouble to Naegi far more than she already has. "We just talked... and uhm, he may have said something insensitive... which made 'me' upset. So, in the meantime, 'I' don't want to be around him so 'I' can cool off..."

Asahina, though she had still a look of worry on her face, seems to have thankfully calmed down. "Hmm... all right. If you say so. I'll admit I'm pretty curious on what exactly you two talked about, but I know that's none of my business. Either way, make sure you two make up soon, okay? We don't need anymore doom and gloom around here!"

Nepgear feels a faint smile form on her face. "I hope so too. Asahina-san, you're just full of positive energy, aren't you?"

"Hehe, I like to keep my spirits sky-high so I can keep going!" Asahina replies with a confident grin. "Oh, and donuts definitely give me a boost! Do you want some?"

"Oh, thank you very much!" Nepgear accepts the donut Asahina is handing out to her and takes a seat next to her.

And so Nepgear spent the rest of her time eating donuts and talking with Asahina. Asahina had asked her how she was coping with her "amnesia", to which Nepgear replied that she was managing just fine thanks to everyone's help. Nepgear had also learned that Asahina was quite the sports enthusiast, having joined six clubs. To her surprise, she apparently also has issues with her weight since she eats so much, leading her to exercise, then eat again, get depressed that she put on weight again so exercise yet again, it was a never-ending cycle...

In the end, they ended up finishing all the donuts on every plate Asahina had brought out. Seeing the large amount they had consumed, all the weight talk was starting to make Nepgear feel conscious of it as well... maybe she should burn off this fat somewhere later...

"Haha! You know, Kirigiri-san, I had a lot of fun talking with you! I thought you weren't the type to socialize with others, but it's good to know we had hit it off so well! I look forward to being closer friends with you!" Asahina cheerfully says.

She then heads off to do her usual exercises. Asahina had invited Nepgear to come along, but she politely declined it and would consider going with her next time instead (unlike Asahina-san, Nepgear wasn't so sure if she could keep up with her endless energy right now).

 _'Closer friends, huh...'_

(A-ah! Kirigiri-san! I'm sorry! I got carried away with talking to Asahina-san! You must have been so bored...!)

 _'...No, it's fine. Anyway, we don't have anything else to do here anymore. We should go.'_

(Okay...)

As Nepgear leaves the room, she could have sworn for a second back there her tone seemed lonely...

 _'Hey, don't start making angsty monologues about me when I'm right here.'_

(Eep, sorry!)

 **| Hagakure Yasuhiro |**

Nepgear spots Hagakure hanging around the hallways of the school by himself. Seeing as he wasn't busy, Nepgear decides to talk to him.

 _'Is there really any need to talk to him?'_ She hears Kirigiri ask with slight annoyance.

(Well, no, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to get to know the other students better... talking with Asahina-san made me realize that all of us should get along more...)

 _'Personally, I find conversing with others regarding about irrelevant matters to be pointless.'_

(B-but...)

 _'...But if you want to, then I'm not stopping you. It's your choice.'_

(Oh, thank you, Kirigiri-san!)

Taking that as her "sign of approval" (or the closest thing she'll get to one), Nepgear approaches Hagakure and strikes up a conversation with him.

"Whoa, Kirigiri-chi? You want to talk? With me?" He says in surprise, pointing a finger at him just to make sure.

Nepgear nods and gives him a polite smile. "Yes. I was just hoping to know more about the other students here. Am I bothering you?"

"Nah, it's just that... you never struck me as the sociable kind of gal, you know? This is seriously a rare opportunity! Must be the gods of fortune smiling upon me! So, yeah, feel free to say anything, dude!" Hagakure says enthusiastically.

Why he was calling her dude when she was obviously a girl was something Nepgear couldn't help but question, but anyways..."Oh, well, I was just wondering, since you're the **Super High School Level Fortune Teller** , how do you do your fortunes?" Nepgear starts.

And he rattled on about cosmogony, aliens and how he had been blessed by the divine deities with the power to predict the future or something along those lines. Nepgear managed to put up with all of his ramblings, and in the end he even offered to tell her future for a ridiculously overpriced fee, and that was already including the "friendship discount". Nepgear refused him politely, so he tried to give her a CD instead. Which had also a ridiculous fee attached to it.

Feeling her money was at risk here, she also shoots down his offer and of any possible merchandise he can pawn her off on. Politely, of course.

"All right then. But if you consider getting some fortune-telling done later on, you know the guy to ask! I'll be seeing you, Kirigiri-chi! You're not that bad to talk with after all!"

After saying their goodbyes to each other, Hagakure walks off, probably to induce his fortune-telling and outrageous fees upon someone else. Naegi, most likely.

(Uhm, see, that wasn't too bad! We managed to learn a lot of things from Hagakure-san!)

 _'If you count various conspiracy theories and trite fortune-telling methods coming from a lookalike hobo as a means of useful information, that is.'_

(Urm... well... they're interesting trivia to go by?)

Nepgear admits even she finds her excuses to be flimsy, and releases a sigh and gives up. If anything, Hagakure's mind was something literally "out of this world"...

 **| Oogami Sakura |**

As Nepgear was walking along the school's corridors, she heard loud noises coming from somewhere nearby.

"What could those sounds be?"

 _'That's just Oogami-san with her usual training.'_

"E-eh, that was Oogami-san...?!"

Whatever she was doing must be pretty intense that it's making such loud noises...

Nepgear decides to check out where the source of the sounds are coming from and notices that it leads her to their dormitory rooms. She stands in front of Oogami's room in slight awe at the massive strength Oogami must have.

"Wow, that's amazing..."

 _'Are you just going to stand here all day?'_

"O-oh, right, it must be pretty rude for me to be standing in front of someone's room like this," Nepgear says.

She turns her back and prepares to leave when the door opens at that very moment, startling the heck out of her.

"Hm? Ah, Kirigiri, is there something you need?" Oogami asks upon seeing her.

"Oh, no. I was just wondering where all the sounds I heard were coming from..." Nepgear replies, a bit timidly. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpses at the equipment inside Oogami's room. Just how did she manage to make them all fit in there?!

"Hmm, perhaps you want to train with me?" Oogami asks with interest.

"E-eh!? A-ah, no I couldn't possibly...!" Nepgear starts to say in an attempt to refuse, but Oogami's looming figure and intense aura proved to be far too intimidating for Nepgear, making the words die in her throat.

In the end, Nepgear ended up training with Oogami. After everything was over, Nepgear feels like her entire body had gone numb. The only thing that seemed to have made her survive Oogami's training method was because her body had been used to battling. She had never been grateful for those monster hunting quests until now.

"Kirigiri, I am most impressed. You are surprisingly more durable than would you appear to be," Oogami compliments.

"I g-guess it's because I... uh... have some experience with it...?" Nepgear tries to reply with a smile, despite her still staggering body. Ooh, her aching muscles...

Seeing Oogami's inquisitive stare, Nepgear continues, "Erm, uh, swordsmanship...?" she replies awkwardly. Well, it was true, after all. She uses swords in battle like her sister. Only that she made modifications to her style and swords with a preference for cool-looking beams along the way...

"I see. Practicing the way of the sword is an excellent method of enforcing discipline upon oneself as well," Oogami remarks with a nod. "Ah, Kirigiri. You seem tired. Would you like to relax with a pot of tea?"

"Ah, yes, I would love some...!" Nepgear replies.

Sitting down in seiza on the floor with pillows on their knees, the two drink their cups of teas in silence. Oogami makes good tea, though, Nepgear thinks as she takes a sip from her cup. She ought to serve tea like this to the others back at her dimension.

"This tea is a special brew from my dojo," Oogami explains. "It is meant to soothe one's muscles after a long time of training."

"Oogami-san, so your family owns a dojo? Is it tradition?" Nepgear asks.

"Yes, my family has been running the dojo for three hundred years," Oogami replies.

"T-three hundred years?! That's a long time! It's impressive to see that you've been keeping it for so long," Nepgear says with admiration.

"My family has been preserving our traditions for centuries. Our dojo has taught us all about the strengthening of character; to train one's self in both spirit and body. I have engraved my dojo's honor to my soul. I have no intention of straying from those teachings," Oogami explains with fierce determination in her eyes.

Nepgear stared at Oogami in amazement. She was someone with high moral character. How honorable! It was pretty cool, actually.

"I am glad we had conversed together, Kirigiri. You are a pleasant person to be around with," Oogami says.

"Yes, I'm honored to have spent my time with you as well," Nepgear replies with a bow more formal than usual. She feels like Oogami deserves that much.

Oogami gives her a final nod as she closes the door to her room. Like a badass, Nepgear thinks.

(Um... this could have been my imagination... but Oogami-san seemed kind of melancholy today...)

 _'So you've noticed it as well. She's most likely experiencing a problem.'_

(I wonder if there's anything we can do to help her...)

 _'If she has no reason to tell you, then it's not our business to pry.'_

That was true... she and Oogami still weren't that close anyway. Nepgear recalls that it was Oogami and Asahina who were like best friends. Maybe Asahina could help her out...

 **| Fukawa Touko |**

Nepgear sees Fukawa walking along the hallways. Nepgear raises her hand in greeting to try to talk to her, but as soon as Fukawa spots her she hisses at her, gives her a look of disgust, and walks off.

...That went well.

.

While doing her usual roaming around the school, Nepgear finds a room with a yen sign (the currency of this world, as Nepgear had learned) on it. Curiosity getting the best of her, she opens the door and looks in.

(Wow, there's so many items around...!)

 _'This is the School Store. Meant to provide school supplies and other miscellaneous items for students.'_

(I see... oh, wait, there's a machine here!)

It looked like one of those gachapon machines they had in arcades. Except it had Monokuma's face on it, so Nepgear had to wonder if it's safe...

 _'Monokuma must have modified that machine to place items of his taste. There's nothing dangerous about it, but its appearance is certainly unappealing.'_

(Hmm... oh! There might be some things I could use here to build that share machine!)

Nepgear approaches the machine but realizes she doesn't have any money to insert into it.

 _'Remember those coins you often found in the school hallways?'_

(Yes, but what about them? ...Oh, wait! Could it be...?)

 _'You can use them for this machine. Monokuma had called them "Monokuma coins". Why he makes coins of himself is a wonder, but there's no choice since it's the only way to operate the machine.'_

Nepgear brings out the coins she stored in her N-Gear holder (because she had no pockets to place items in, unfortunately. Might as well make do with what she had) and inserts them into the machine. It plays a funny little tune as the bulbs around it start to blink and light up, as a capsule eventually drops down into the open space below. She picks it up, and pops it open, and is surprised to find...

"Woooow! T-this is a raygun! I can't believe it! How did this get here?! A-anyway! This is amazing! Look at how high-tech it looks! Looks to be made with parts that are supposed to exist in future generations!" And Nepgear starts to geek out again. "Aww, it doesn't seem to have any batteries though... what a shame..."

She was so caught up in fangirling over machinery again that she failed to notice the door opening as someone came in.

"Kirigiri-san...?"

Nepgear freezes at the sound of that voice. Like a robot, she cranes her head slowly, smile still frozen in her face, at the source of the voice.

"N-Naegi-san...?"

He was standing there with a rather confused look on his face. While Nepgear currently had her face frozen in that awkward smile, inwardly she was freaking out.

(D-d-don't tell me he saw everything...!)

 _'...We should leave. Now.'_

And as expected, Kirigiri's mood dampens at his presence.

Nepgear actually found herself agreeing with Kirigiri, and quickly hurries out with a "E-excuse me!" while feeling like she's about to die of embarrassment.

Naegi watches her leave and then stares at the MonoMono Machine with a thoughtful look on his face.

* * *

"Phew, I managed to talk a lot of things with the others..." Nepgear lets out a sigh. Through the conversations she had with them, she learned new things about the other students. As well as the lack of Kirigiri's social life.

 _'I'm not one for idle chatter,'_ Kirigiri had said.

That was probably why she didn't have much friends...

After spending some time conversing with some of the other students, Nepgear had returned back to her (and Kirigiri's) room to take a rest. Maybe she could start working on the machine now...

 **Diiinng dooong... diiing doong...**

Monokuma's familiar seated image complete with drinking glass (Kirigiri had told her that it was most likely for props or something) came into the monitor in her room. "May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? Urgent: Please assemble in the gymnasium... urgent... urgent... urgent... **urgent!** "

"Oh, is he summoning us all for an announcement?" Nepgear wonders out loud. She's never experienced doing this yet.

 _'He only does this when he has something important to say... I have a feeling this isn't going to be pleasant news.'_

Hearing the grave tone in Kirigiri's voice, Nepgear suddenly starts to grow nervous. (A-ah, when you put it that way...)

 _'Standing here isn't going to accomplish anything. We should go and see what he wants.'_

(R-right...)

Recalling Naegi's directions from their time the other day, she makes her way to the gymnasium, with Kirigiri pitching in every now and then on which way she should go.

She eventually arrives at a large gate which led to a hallway with a shelf filled with trophies. The first thing Nepgear noticed, though, was that Oogami and Naegi were up ahead talking with each other.

"Why haven't you gone inside yet, Oogami-san?" She hears Naegi ask.

"I have... an unpleasant premonition... about what is going to occur..." Oogami replies gravely.

"Well, yeah, considering it was Monokuma who called us down here, you're right to be cautious..." Naegi says.

Oogami has her arms crossed and eyes closed as if she was in deep thought. "..."

"Oogami-san?" Naegi asks in concern.

"Naegi... should anything happen... take care of Asahina..." Oogami mutters.

"...What?"

Oogami shakes her head and smiles as if resigned to something. "Never mind. Forget I said anything... I am... who I am... who should believe in someone... who does not believe in themselves...?"

With that, she walks away and heads into the gymnasium.

Naegi is left standing there in confusion. Those were some pretty ominous words back there, how could anyone not be worried about that? "Uh..."

He suddenly takes notice of Nepgear who was standing discreetly a few meters behind. Nepgear jumps a bit once they make eye contact, feeling ashamed for having eavesdropped on their conversation, and quickly rushes into the gymnasium while keeping her head low as she passed by Naegi.

Once everyone was present in the room, Nepgear had noticed they were all staring expectantly in the podium at the stage in front, and she does the same. After a while, Monokuma pops up from the floor and stands on top of the podium.

"Welp, let's not waste any time," Monokuma starts.

"I'm sure this is another one of your **'incentives'** , isn't it?" Togami says knowingly.

Monokuma tilts his head innocently as if not knowing what he was talking about. "Hmm?"

"The reason you gathered us all here is to provide us with another incentive, no?" Togami continues to say in irritation.

Asahina and Fukawa grow pale at his words as Hagakure starts to freak out again. "Ngggh, not again! Gimme a freakin' break, man!"

"Nope... nope, nope..." Monokuma says with a disappointed shake of his head. "Nopenopenopenopenopenope!" Then he grins. "You're way off. No incentives this time. The reason why I gathered **you guys** here today is so I can clear the books on a grudge I've been holding."

"A... grudge?" Naegi repeats.

 _'While we may have reason to bear a grudge against him, I can't imagine **why** he would have one against us.'_

"You remember what you said before, Togami-kun? About how I might have planted **a mole** in your midst?" Monokuma asks Togami in confirmation.

"What about it?" Togami replies in a cautious tone.

"I'm gonna tell you who the mole is," Monokuma says nonchalantly, as if it was no big deal. "Don't think I haven't noticed that all of you have been keeping secrets from me! Not telling your headmaster, how cruel!" He says overdramatically. Then he switches back to his devious grin again. "So it's only natural that I let you in on one! An 'eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth', like they say! You ready? The mole is **Oogami Sakura**!"

Silence comes upon the room.

(E-ehhh...?! Did he just say that Oogami-san is...?!)

"Whaaat? What'd you just say?!" Hagakure exclaims.

"He just said... Oogami Sakura is the mole..." Togami repeats slowly, already shifting a glare to Oogami.

"There's no way Sakura-chan's your stupid mole!" Asahina shouts in anger. She then turns to Oogami. "Isn't that right, Sakura-chan?"

"..." Oogami remains silent.

"Saku... ra-chan?"

"Also, I think it's about time you made good on your **promise** to me, Oogami-san. If you don't, well... whatever happens to the hostages isn't on **my** hands. That's all I have to say. As for this whole mole business, **you guys** can handle that however you want. Boil 'er, grill 'er, off 'er, let 'er off you! Take your pick!" Monokuma says, clearly enjoying everyone's reactions. "Upupu. So **exciting**."

And with that, he vanishes through the floor again.

Nepgear looks around warily at everyone's tense faces. The room itself seems to have gained a significant tension in the air...

* * *

 **Phew, probably the longest chapter I've written ever.**

 **Anyways, I inserted some explanations and stuff there, I hope that managed to make some sense out of it. :P I also hope I managed to get most of the Danganronpa's characters with their conversations with Nepgear right. Oogami was especially hard to write considering her beliefs and character...**

 **Oh, and yes, if you've noticed, I combined the Good Ending and True Ending in Victory together. Like I've said this is kind of AU.**

 **Also, maybe it's just me but I think there's a lack of humor in this chapter...Hmm...**


	4. Incoming Trauma

**_Crazycatwin:_ Oh, so I see you're also another person who doesn't know the HDN series, ahaha. But still, I'm glad that you think it's awesome! *blows into tissue***

 ** _Epyon111:_ Haha, it seems for some reason the readers of this story only know either the Danganronpa or HDN series. Still, thank you so much for the support! Ah, and to answer your question, unfortunately, the Danganronpa series is a mystery game, so there's not much action in it (except for the Ultra Despair Girls game, I guess). And I only planned for Nepgear to be the only Neptunia character in focus, but at the very least I do make references to the other characters from time to time. **

**_vocaloidHM01:_ Uwaah, seriously, you're too kind! I'm sure there are other better fics out there in this site! But I'm relieved that I'm managing to portray the characters right, one of my main concerns is that I end up making them OOC... but again, thank you for the positive review!**

 ** _Fallenstreet01:_ I'm happy to say that you nailed the reaction I was going for with Kirigiri! Poor girl must have been so confused, haha. But yeah, it would have been interesting to let Nepgear interact with the other students... it's just too bad they're already gone. XP So in the meantime I hope to at least get her to interact a lot with the remaining students instead. **

**_Harmless Orange:_ Wow, really? I had always pictured it as being in a first-person perspective when Nepgear interacts with people like Naegi does. But you have visual reference, so that's all good! I'm pretty curious myself on how Nepgear's sprites would look like in the Danganronpa game.**

 **Phew, sorry for the long update. I was busy with a looottt of stuff. So yeah, I hope this chapter ends up being decent too! I've changed the pic into Nepgear now, since the previous one was Nepgya. Sure, they have the same appearance, but I'm nitpicky about details like that. XD**

 **DISCLAIMER: Nope, nope, don't own anything.**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 04: ALL ALL APOLOGIES (3)**

 **(In which everything falls apart)**

* * *

 **-NIGHTTIME-**

"U-uhh... the hell's going on, dude? I-is it true? Is Ogre really the mastermind's mole?!" Hagakure is the first to break the tense silence in the room, with his usual freak out.

"What are you saying?! Of course she's not!" Asahina yells back in reply.

"But... that's what the teddy bear said..." Fukawa mutters.

"H-he's lying! She would... never!" Asahina continues to insist furiously.

 _'We should hear what Oogami-san has to say about this. If it's not true, then she should tell us herself.'_

(R-right...)

Giving a mental agreement to Kirigiri, Nepgear turns to face Oogami. "Oogami-san... is this true?"

As she stared at Oogami with an apprehensive look, some part of Nepgear couldn't believe that Monokuma was speaking the truth. It had to be one of his cruel pranks, right? A person like Oogami couldn't possibly be working for the likes of Monokuma...

...Right?

After a moment of silence on Oogami's part, she eventually speaks up. "I apologize... for keeping this from you..."

Asahina grows pale at her words. "Huh...?"

"Then it's true?! Ogre really is the mastermind's minion?!" Hagakure exclaims, his hands clutching his hair in a panic again.

"Y-you've been lying to us... all this time?!" Fukawa hisses out in accusation.

"N-no... I'm sure... she was just being manipulated..." Asahina continues to defend her friend, but her tone had grown rather weak compared to her earlier ones. "There's some... some reason... and she had no choice... but to follow his orders..."

 _'That is a possibility...'_

(Y-yes! That has to be it! Oogami-san... she's not the type to willingly cooperate with such things! I'm sure she must've had a reason for doing so...!)

"Asahina-san's exactly right."

Surprised at Naegi suddenly speaking up, Nepgear and the others around the room turn to listen to him.

"Oogami-san had no choice... the mastermind was coercing her," he continues to say.

Fukawa gives him a skeptical look. "S-so says you, Mr. Know-It-All!"

"But I **do** know... Because I **saw** it!" Naegi says firmly.

Nepgear's eyes widen in surprise at his words. She could actually feel Kirigiri react with slight surprise as well.

"You... saw it?" She asks.

Naegi nods in her direction. "I saw Oogami-san fighting Monokuma... and I heard him mention about the 'hostages' he said earlier... This is what Oogami-san said in response: **'I have resolved myself... to fight against you!'** "

"Hm... so you saw that..." Oogami mutters.

"You reluctantly agreed to follow the mastermind's orders because he had taken hostages, didn't you? But in the end... you resolved to betray him, Oogami-san..." Naegi says in an almost reassuring manner to Oogami.

Hearing his words, Nepgear relaxes her tense posture and feels relieved, a small smile forming on her lips. So that was it...! Oogami was forced into something she didn't do! Surely everyone will understand that Oogami wasn't really a bad person, right?

...Unfortunately for Nepgear, the next events that transpired broke down that optimistic viewpoint pretty quickly.

"Ergo she's no longer our enemy? Ergo she's our friend and we can place our full trust in her? Is that it?" Togami says in a sardonic tone. "You're ridiculous. What kind of fairytale world do you live in?"

Just like that, the smile on Nepgear's face is replaced with a look of distress as she stares at Togami with the unspoken words of "What the goodness are you saying, man!?". In a similar manner, Naegi was also looking startled at his words.

"She was the mastermind's puppet. Like hell I'm giving her my trust that easily," Togami adds in a manner that said he wasn't in the mood to be messing around. "In any event, who's to say she actually betrayed the mastermind? She could very well still be in his pocket, having simply feigned defeat..."

"Sakura-chan would never do such a thing!" Asahina retorts back.

Indifferent to Asahina's protests, Togami moves his gaze from Naegi to Oogami. "So, Oogami. If you actually betrayed the mastermind, then tell us this: just who is he?"

Oogami looked like she desperately wanted to say something for a brief moment, but afterwards she merely closes her eyes in resignation. "Forgive me. I know nothing."

Togami smirks knowingly in response. "You don't know anything? It's getting harder and harder to believe you."

"She's telling the truth! Please, believe her!" Asahina interrupts with her plea.

"Shut your mouth. I'm not done with her," Togami replies dismissively, still not taking his eyes off Oogami. "Next question: what is this 'promise' Monokuma spoke of? What have you been ordered to do?"

Oogami seemed hesitant to speak, before finally mustering out to say, "...The order... I was given... was to murder someone."

The gravity of Oogami's words only seemed to add to the increasing tension in the room.

(M-murder...?!)

"I see... so even now, at this very moment, our lives are in danger," Togami remarks.

"You're wrong! Sakura-chan would never do anything like that!" Asahina protests.

"Y-you don't need to yell...! We're standing right here, we can hear you just fine...!" Fukawa mutters in complaint.

"I'm yelling because **you** **aren't listening!** " Asahina yells back, even louder than before.

"Stop. There is no reason to further conflict on my account," Oogami intervenes. "I will... atone for my misdeeds... I will take the mastermind down."

Naegi stares at her with widened eyes. "What?"

"I will do battle with the mastermind, and I will take him down... even if I go down with him. That is how... I intend to atone..." Oogami says with finality.

Asahina looks alarmed. "W-wait, wait, hold on! 'Even if you go down with him'?"

Oogami faces Asahina with a regretful expression. "I apologize, Asahina... for not confiding with you... On numerous occasions, I considered confessing everything to you... but I was afraid. I was afraid you might despise me if I told you the truth..."

Asahina looked like she was about to tear up. "S-Sakura-chan...!"

"My apologies..." was all Oogami said as she turned her back and walked out of the gymnasium.

 **Diiing dooong... diiing dooong...**

"Ahem, may I have your attention please? The time is now 10:00 PM. **'Nighttime'** is now in effect. The cafeteria is now off-limits, and the door will be locked momentarily. And with that, I wish you all a good night. Sweet dreams..."

Ah, it was already this late? Nepgear hadn't noticed it was already at this time of the night... the recent events had made her...

"Well, look at the time. Let's get going then, shall we?" Togami says casually, seemingly unconcerned with Oogami's issue.

He was just about to start heading off when Asahina shouts after him. "W-wait! We're not yet finished...!"

"But we have. She is our enemy. That's all there is to it," Togami responds.

"No! Sakura-chan is **not** our enemy!" Asahina insists vehemently. Her gaze shifts down into the floor, fists clenched in frustration in her sides. "Why...? Why won't anyone... try to understand her...?"

Nepgear can feel a strong wave of sympathy towards Asahina. "Asahina-san..."

But of course Togami has to go and put his say on things again. "What about you? Do you think you can understand her? Not even you knew who she really was."

"T-that's just..."

 _'Talking about this right now isn't going to accomplish anything. Let's just call it a night.'_

Nepgear is taken aback by Kirigiri's calmness towards this event.

(E-eh, is it really okay to leave things as it is...?!)

 _'We can continue the discussion tomorrow. Asahina-san needs some time to cool off.'_

—Because she'll be prone to doing something reckless when she's too caught up in her emotions—is that what Kirigiri was trying to say? At least, that's what Nepgear can deduce based on the emotions on Kirigiri's part.

Nepgear decides to go with Kirigiri's opinion. "Um, Asahina-san, I think it's best if we rest for tonight... we can talk about this tomorrow. I know that there's a lot that we need to think about..."

Asahina gazes at Nepgear wordlessly with such intensity that Nepgear's worried that she'll refuse the suggestion, but eventually Asahina must have sort of consented to it, as she storms out of the gymnasium without any complaint. The rest follow afterwards, and head back to their rooms in silence.

Back in their room (Nepgear isn't that presumptuous to claim the room as her own, just because Kirigiri wasn't physically here anymore; so she still can't help but acknowledge the fact that this is still Kirigiri's room), even though Nepgear was already lying down on the bed, she found herself unable to sleep.

 _'Are you still worried?'_

(Yes... knowing that Oogami-san is the mole... came as a big shock to me. I could only imagine how Asahina-san felt after hearing that your best friend is—no, used to be working for the mastermind... I believe that Oogami-san really is a good person. But... the others don't seem to think that way... they still think of her as a traitor... why don't the others believe her...?)

 _'In an objective point of view, I can understand why the other students aren't willing to clear Oogami-san of suspicion just yet. There is still the risk of her merely faking her betrayal of the mastermind in an attempt to get us to lower our guard.'_

(So Kirigiri-san... do you also...?)

 _'...However. There is Naegi-kun's testimony to be considered. If his account of witnessing Oogami-san fight Monokuma is to be believed, then she is most likely an ally. ...Also, assessing Oogami-san's personality, it would seem unfitting for her to willingly participate in such acts. Regarding the hostages Monokuma mentioned about... there is a strong possibility it is related to her family. Based on the information she had given you a while ago, it could be her dojo...'_

(Eh?! Her dojo?! How does one hold an entire dojo hostage?!)

 _'Perhaps the mastermind is using Oogami-san's confinement to the academy to prevent them from taking any sort of action. Or, with the amount of weapons and technology Monokuma possesses; through sheer force. There are many other possibilities, but I wouldn't know for sure since I don't know the complete information.'_

(...Oogami-san must have it hard, having her important family members hostage...)

 _'I would say the mastermind thought appropriately by selecting Oogami-san as their mole.'_

(Huh? Why do you think so, Kirigiri-san?)

 _'As you know, she is the_ _ **Super High School Level Fighter**_ _. Someone of her talent undoubtedly possesses extreme strength. In fact, it's no exaggeration to call her the strongest woman in the world.'_

"Strongest woman in the world"...? That sounds like something that would come out of a manga... Nepgear thinks. Then again, it doesn't sound all that farfetched since she's used to living in a world with strong people about in Gamindustri, and since the world she's currently in now was crazy to begin with, a macho high school girl being the strongest person in the universe actually sounds believable.

 _'Of course, someone with such strength could pose as a possible threat. Unlike my case, where the mastermind erased my memories; to restrict Oogami-san's actions, they coerced her to work for them by holding people important to her hostage. The amount of lives at stake only pressures her to be bound to the mastermind's bidding.'_

(I see... that certainly makes sense... ah, I could tell this to the others tomorrow! Maybe then they'll understand Oogami-san's situation more!)

 _'I'll just say this: don't expect things to proceed smoothly. You must keep in mind that everyone holds different beliefs and opinions. The others, especially the likes of Togami-kun, are not the type to be easily swayed by reasons pertaining to emotional attachments. Not everyone holds the same amount of naivety like you and Naegi-kun do.'_

Geh, she didn't have to point out the naivety part...

(But even so... I still want the others to trust Oogami-san. We shouldn't be suspecting each other like this... we should be working together instead...!)

Nepgear knows it's not going to be easy convincing the others.

Still, if there's even the slightest chance she can do something to help, she'd do it.

It may seem a bit hopeless for a newcomer like her... she just arrived in this dimension after all, so she hasn't spent a long amount of time with the others yet to know much about them...

But if there's anything she's sure of, she doesn't want any killings to happen.

The mere thought of people around her killing each other...

Such a thing was...

* * *

 _"Have you reached a conclusion?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _She had been thinking about it the entire night. In the end, this is what she chose to do._

 _"What did you decide?"_

 _"I won't take anyone's life. Even if I offered my own life, I don't think they would accept it."_

 _She hears the chorus of approval around the room. She feels a smile form on her face._

 _"Keep in mind that if we don't use the sword, our chance to win is slim."_

 _"Though I promised to follow your decision, I still hesitate to send you to battle with the odds against you."_

 _"I considered that, too. Well... what if we gathered all of the nations' shares into one big share?"_

 _"You mean to combine our shares?"_

 _"Do you realize what you're saying...?!"_

 _Why the sudden troubled look on their faces...?_

 _"We'll gather all the shares into Planeptune. Using that, my sister and I will fight against the Deity of Sin."_

 _"W-wait, that does sound like an effective way to counter her enormous strength, but..."_

 _"What'll happen to the other nations? If you take all of our shares, the CPUs will be incapacitated!"_

 _Yes, there was the issue of the other nations' shares, but...!_

 _"But nobody will die...!"_

 _"That may be true, however..."_

 _"Jeez, is this naivete or the blissful ignorant of youth? There's no way I can permit this strategy."_

 _"I cannot support this, either."_

 _"Same. If you really want to do this, put all the shares into Leanbox. There's no reason for us to give it all to Planeptune."_

 _What...? No, no, no! Please don't take it the wrong way! She just doesn't want anyone else to get hurt_ _—she doesn't want anyone to be burdened with this task_ _—_

 _"No, please understand...!"_

 _"Impossible. You're asking for too much."_

 _"Can't you consider a different solution? If you insist on it, I have no choice but to consider this as a declaration of war."_

 _"If you threaten Lowee's prosperity, we'll regard you as an enemy as well."_

 _"You've made such a stupid decision. You're a dummy! A real dumb CPU!"_

 _"Nepgear-san..."_

 _No, why was everyone acting like this...?_

 _"Why...? We can't afford to argue over something so trivial right now...!"_

 _"Looks like it's a waste of time to talk back some sense into her."_

 _"Everyone, please wait!"_

 _Why...?_

 _Why was everyone being so stubborn?_

 _This isn't the time to be worrying about their shares! If the Deity of Sin revives, then nothing will remain in the end!_

 _She doesn't want to use the sword!_

 _She doesn't want to sacrifice anybody!_

 _Why can't they understand that?!_

 _WHY ARE THEY ALL BEING SO_ _—_

* * *

Nepgear woke up with a gasp, frantically sitting up in the bed. She briefly noted that her clothes were clinging to her skin that was currently dripped with cold sweat.

 _'Nepgear?'_

(A-a-ah...! Kirigiri-san...!)

She wasn't sure if she was imagining things, but she could detect a bit of worry in Kirigiri's tone...

Nepgear was quite thankful for their mental telepathy thing. She didn't think she would have any voice to speak out of at the moment.

 **Diiing dooong... diiing doong...**

"Good morning, **you guys**! It is now 7:00 AM! Rise and shiiine! Let's make today into the best day it can be!"

"O-oh, it's already morning..." Nepgear stammers out, trying to keep her tone casual. She gets out of the bed, ignoring how her legs seemed to be shaking. "W-we should hurry over to the cafeteria... there's still Oogami-san's situation we have to talk about, right...?"

She walks towards the cafeteria, with heavy steps. Could have been only on Nepgear's part, but the morning start seemed to be unusually coated with a thick silence hanging in the air, as she desperately tried not to think of the dream she had.

...Come to think of it, even Kirigiri seemed to be remaining unusually silent too. Nepgear's used to Kirigiri's silent nature; she knew Kirigiri wasn't the type to speak until she deemed it necessary, but for today it seemed there was a weight to her silence.

Nepgear was just about to enter the cafeteria when out of the corner of her eye she notices another figure approaching.

"Oh, Kirigiri-san... Good morning..."

It was Naegi. She certainly didn't expect to see him this early in the morning. He looked rather tired, he must have just woke up. No doubt he spent most of his night thinking over the recent events too.

"Good morni—" Nepgear was just about to greet him back when she realized that d'oh—wait, isn't Kirigiri still mad at him? If she talks to him, Kirigiri might get angry and that would not help the already tense mood all around—

 _'Let's just get going already.'_

Nepgear jumps a bit in place at Kirigiri's voice, mentally giving her a flustered "Y-yes!" as she hurries into the cafeteria. Oh goodness, every interaction she has with Naegi always turns out to be so awkward...

She would've thought that Kirigiri wanted to avoid Naegi for a bit longer, seeing as she went as far as to take breakfast at a later time yesterday, but the situation right now really wasn't the time for that, so Nepgear supposes Kirigiri's willing to tolerate his presence for the time-being.

"Oh, you two! Good to know you're both still kicking!" is what Hagakure says as the two of them enter.

Naegi voices out both of their confusion by replying, "Still kicking? What's that supposed to mean?"

"The two of you took so long to show up... so he was worried..." Fukawa mumbles an explanation.

"You dullards..." Both Nepgear and Naegi turn to surprise at Togami's presence in the room. They never expected him of all people to show up. Wasn't he the type who hates hanging out with lowly commoners or something snobbish along those lines?

"Fukawa-san, Togami-kun... what are you two doing here?" Naegi asks.

"Taking refuge, they say," Asahina replies, not looking amused at all.

"Refuge?" Nepgear repeats in confusion.

"Don't look so flabbergasted," Togami suddenly cuts in. "I'm here to protect myself from the mastermind's lackey."

Eh, what? He's still going on about that?!

 _'...Speaking of the supposed traitor, she's not here.'_

At her words, Nepgear looks around the room and notices the lack of a large figure in a school uniform.

(Y-you're right... Oogami-san doesn't seem to be around...)

"Where **is** Oogami-san?" Naegi continues to ask in worry.

"If she were here, I **wouldn't** be. That is precisely why I'm here to take refuge from that menace," Togami replies in a brutally honest tone.

M-menace...?! (Seconds later, Naegi would exclaim the same thing, oh what a coincidence) Isn't that a bit too much...?!

"Why are you... treating Sakura-chan so much like a bad guy?" Gah, as expected, Asahina reacted! Though her voice seemed calm right now, Nepgear could sense something ready to burst out...

"Why wouldn't I? Her being here isn't fair," Togami says.

"Not fair? What do you mean by that?" Naegi asks.

"A game must be fair for all its participants. However, a mole is an impediment to fairness," Togami explains.

G-game...? Is this what he thinks this is all about? W-well, sure, technically speaking, in real life it is—wait, no what is she thinking about all this tension is making her mind such a mess now daaaaahhh—

" **That's** your reason? So stupid," Asahina scoffs.

"Stupid? Do you not remember the game's stakes? **Our** **lives** ," Togami retorts.

"You're stupid! Stupid stupid stupid!" Nepgear didn't mean to judge, but Asahina's comeback sounds like a kid trying to pick on another kid...

Nepgear hears Kirigiri sigh in exasperation. _Rather than bickering, we should use this time to think things through again._

(Think about...? Oh! Are you talking about what we had discussed about last night?)

 _'There's that, but there's another question I want to raise. Why did the mastermind give Oogami-san up?'_

(Huh? Was there another reason other than Oogami-san's betrayal?)

 _'Haven't you realized it? He's obviously trying to stir up mistrust among us to create another **incentive**.'_

(Ah...! So for the people who're extremely suspicious...)

 _'There is a high possibility that one will kill out of paranoia.'_

It was as if someone poured a cold bucket on Nepgear's body with the chills she was feeling right now at those words. (T-that's terrible...! We've got to diffuse the situation somehow!)

"U-um! It's not good to be fighting like this!" Her stuttering kind of ruins things, but at the very least her loud voice catches the attention of Togami and Asahina, who stop their bickering to focus their attention on her. "T-this kind of thing... it's what the mastermind wants to happen! He wants us to hate each other and start killing each other... a-and I don't want that!"

Asahina's aggression seems to diminish at her words. "Y-yeah, I don't want that to happen either... but then... how am I supposed to get everyone to trust Sakura-chan...?"

"I'd trust her in a heartbeat if she actually took the mastermind down..." Hagakure comments.

"No way! What if she **actually** tried and something happened to her?!" Asahina responds furiously.

"I don't see the problem," Togami says with indifference. "Oogami's death just means one less man on the mastermind's side. Besides, even if she were to die, it would take care of this mess, too. That's one problem solved."

Gah, there goes Togami saying stuff that clearly isn't helping the situation at all!

(But for him to hold no sympathy for Oogami-san... that's too much!)

The next thing that happened seemed to have gone too fast for Nepgear. She hears Naegi gasp out with an equally horrified "H-hold on, Togami-kun!" at his words, then Asahina rushes forward at Togami's direction, draws back her arm and gives him a hard slap, the loud **SMACK!** sound effect the only thing resounding throughout the entire room.

Fukawa lets out a shriek of indignation as Togami holds the cheek he had just been slapped at and gives a glare at the offender who did it. "What was that for...?"

Nepgear stares wide-eyed at the events unfolding in front of her, the rest around her looking equally in shock. She wasn't sure about Kirigiri, though, but she can sense she was still feeling awfully calm about this.

But either way, Asahina... just slapped Togami!

She **slapped** him!

Well, not that he didn't deserve it, but still...! Instead of the tension disappearing, it's only coming back with full force!

"You're disgusting! You're a monster! An absolute monster! Talk like that... and it's you... you're the one who should die!" Asahina shouts in rage at him.

Togami merely narrows his eyes at her. "I should die...? That's certainly interesting. Why don't you give it a try? Go on. Try and kill me. Those are the rules."

"You think... I won't?" Asahina says in a dangerously serious voice.

"A-Asahina-san! Relax! Remember what Kirigiri-san just said? This is exactly what the mastermind wants! Oogami-san wouldn't want you two to be fighting over her like this!" Naegi frantically tells her in an effort to calm her down.

Asahina becomes silent, but doesn't let up on her glare at Togami.

"What? Are you not going to kill me?" He taunts.

(Still not helping, Togami-san!)

She continues to wordlessly glare at Togami for a few more seconds with clenched fists (d'oh what if she punches him next), before she turns her back towards him. "Goodbye... I'm going back to my room..."

With those words, she dashes off.

"T-that harlot... how **dare** she speak to my White Knight like that! **She will burn!** " Fukawa could be heard muttering curses under her breath.

...That's what she's concerned about, really?

"Hmph, nothing but a woman's hysterics. Hardly the slightest bit amusing," Togami scoffs as he watches Asahina run off.

(P-passing it off as just being hysterical... I'm prone to being hysterical too, but even I know that he's not thinking about Asahina-san's feelings at all!)

Adding herself as an example kind of puts a damper on things, but at least Nepgear's feelings of fury were very much real.

 _'Togami-kun seems to give very little consideration to human emotion... Nepgear, I want you to say something to him.'_

Nepgear's eyes briefly widen at Kirigiri's request, but afterwards her mouth settles into a firm line as she nods with courage in her eyes.

"Togami-san... your disregard for human feelings... that **will** come back to haunt you some day," Nepgear says with an unusual amount of assertiveness and calmness from her.

This air of confidence she was showing... it was quite reminiscent of her goddess form—as Purple Sister.

Naegi was staring at her confident form in awe. It's almost as if Kirigiri herself was speaking through her. Naegi blinked in confusion. Wait, what's he talking about? She's Kirigiri, isn't she? Was he imagining things?

Though no matter how badass Nepgear seemed to be at that moment, Togami dismisses her words with his usual haughty attitude. "My deepest gratitude for the advice. I'll be sure not to pay it any mind."

"U-uhh... welp, dudes... whaddya say we grab some grub?" Hagakure nervously speaks up. Seeing everyone's tense expressions, he tries to lighten things up in a joking manner. "...Or not... hahaha..." At least he tries.

Togami is the first to leave, Fukawa following after him while still looking like she's still busy thinking up of evil plans for Asahina, while the three people left behind give each other disappointed stares and leave the the cafeteria.

Nepgear sighs. So much for breakfast...

* * *

 **FREE TIME EVENTS**

* * *

 **| Asahina Aoi |**

Nepgear figured she'd talk to Asahina to cheer her up. She even got a lot of donuts from the MonoMono Machine to eat with her! ...In the first place, Nepgear wondered how in the world the MonoMono Machine manages to store food in there, but in the end she decided not to question the logic.

She knocked on Asahina's room in hopes of talking to her, and moments later the door slightly opened as Asahina peeked a bit outside.

"Oh, Kirigiri-san, it's you... sorry, I'm not really in the mood to talk... I just want to be alone for a while... I need some time to think..."

And with that, she closes the door, leaving Nepgear standing there all by herself.

...Great, now what was she supposed to do with all these donuts?

...

Later, Nepgear could be seen in the cafeteria eating the donuts all by her lonesome. She found herself relating to Noire a lot more now.

 **| Oogami Sakura |**

Seeing as Asahina wasn't available, Nepgear decided to go for the other one who also needed cheering up the most, and that was Oogami. Nepgear managed to find her brooding in the chemistry lab all by herself, staring at the shelves of various medicine with a serious look on her face (then again, when wasn't Oogami serious?).

Nepgear approached her for a conversation, ready to endure another bone-breaking training session if she had to.

"Kirigiri, your kindness is most appreciated. However, I would like some time to myself..." Oogami tells her with a grateful, but slightly sad smile on her face.

"Oh, I see... that's fine... I understand," Nepgear replies as she exits the room.

And so Nepgear was left to be by herself again. She releases a disappointed sigh as she starts to wander pointlessly throughout the corridors.

(I was hoping that maybe I could have tried to cheer them up... I know Asahina-san and Oogami-san are going through a lot right now, so I assumed they wanted someone to talk to...)

 _'Engaging in friendly discussions does, ideally, serve as a temporary distraction from pessimistic thoughts. But there are times when matters are best dealt with by thinking it over on your own. Escaping from the problems at hand will do nothing in improving the situation.'_

(...That's true... I shouldn't force myself towards others who could use some time alone... I'm most likely being a bother anyway...)

Nepgear finds herself sighing again, when she sees Hagakure lingering around the school hallways. Mulling over her options, she decides she might as well talk to him while he's there. Hagakure seems to be the most laid-back out of all the students, so talking to him should bound to lighten things up a bit.

 **| Hagakure Yasuhiro |**

"Hello, Hagakure-san. Do you mind if I join you?" Nepgear greets politely.

"Oh, Kirigiri-chi! You've come at the opportune moment!" Nepgear blinks at his sudden over-dramatic tone. "You see, last night... I had a dream. I've been wondering what it was about, when I realized that it must be a prophecy! I dreamt that we would be rescued from this hellish academy with the aid of the spirits!"

Nepgear feels an eye twitch (whoops, that was one of Kirigiri's emotions she slipped out), but still continues to retain her polite smile and tries to look fascinated. "Spirits, you say...?"

Hagakure crosses his arms and closes his eyes, looking quite sure of himself as he nods. "Yeah, no doubt the spirits decided to convey their future plans to me! So naturally I just have to spread their message! Dreams are connected to the realities of the world, so I'm positive it's prophetic!"

Nepgear forces a laugh. "I-is that so... that's nice to hear..."

The talks of a supposed prophecy aside, an uncomfortable thought comes to Nepgear's mind as she recalls Hagakure's words.

Dreams being connected to reality...

So does this mean her dream was...

Nepgear mentally shook the thoughts away. No, no, no! The reason why she came to talk to Hagakure was to get rid of all these angst! She needs to say something else to drive away all these unpleasant thoughts...!

"H-Hagakure-san...! Can I ask why you don't trust Oogami-san so much?"

Oh what the goodness! She just followed it up with an even more angsty question—!

 **Nepgear gains the "Brutal Questioner** **" Affinity!**

Oh goodness that again?!

Hagakure's over-dramatic flair vanishes as a troubled expression comes upon his face as he looks down on the floor in deep thought. "Oh, you mean about Ogre, huh...? Yeah, I get that she doesn't seem to be the type who'd actually want to kill anybody..."

 _'It's too late to take back the question. Let's hear what he has to say.'_

Looks like Kirigiri saves the day again from Nepgear's hysterics.

Slowly composing herself, Nepgear puts on her serious face and urges him to continue. "But...?"

He scratches his mop of hair. "Well, I dunno... everyone seemed to be fairly cool dudes... I really thought that no one would go through with the whole killing thing; that's what I thought at first... but... after one incident after 'nother, it made me realize that everyone's got some hidden side of them they're not showing... you'd think this dude wouldn't totally harm a fly, and next thing they know, they've killed someone. It's hard to tell who's good or who's not, y'know..."

 _'Fearing the unpredictable... that is a normal reaction.'_

Nepgear feels her earlier incredulity fade at Hagakure's words, instead staring at him with a new wave of understanding. "Hagakure-san..."

"I mean, you can never predict what people become, ya know! Like you, Kirigiri-chi! You used to be this scary dude who never spoke that much and was always glarin' at everybody, then with just one dose of amnesia you become this super nice girl! It's freaky how people can change personalities at the drop of hat," Hagakure adds.

Erm... her circumstances are kind of special, Nepgear thinks to herself with a sweatdrop, as she feels Kirigiri's gone dangerously silent again.

Nepgear decides to end their conversation on that note, but not before politely dismissing him and giving him a proper farewell. She feels like she's managed to understand Hagakure a bit though, seeing as he's shown to also be thinking deeply about the situation they're currently facing as opposed to the carefree nature he usually has.

Hmm, looking back, perhaps she could have saved those donuts she got from the MonoMono Machine earlier and shared it with Hagakure. She didn't know why; she just felt the need to give him something like a token of appreciation for having shared his thoughts with her—especially when this voice out of nowhere had asked her if she wanted to give him a present.

 **| Togami Byakuya |**

Nepgear stares warily at Togami, who was currently sitting down and reading a book, while hiding behind a bookshelf. She dropped by the library to see if there were any interesting books she could read to pass the time, when Togami just happened to be present as well. She had ducked behind the bookshelf as soon as she spotted his figure, and was hesitant to approach him because she felt like she wasn't mentally prepared to talk with Togami, considering his behavior... and especially because of the earlier incident that occurred with him and Asahina...

And didn't she practically talk back at him a while ago? (Okay, well, she just said what Kirigiri wanted to say, but she won't deny that she willingly went along with it because even she thought Togami was taking things too far...) So wouldn't it be weird for her to suddenly talk to him as if that never happened? She doubts she can pull off a casual conversation with him without that event in mind. She wasn't like Neptune, who could walk off to complete strangers and act like they were best buds off the bat. Such a thing was yet another one of her sister's charisma at work or "main character skills" as Neptune put it.

 _'I wouldn't recommend speaking with him. For a guy with an ego like his, he won't bother to waste his breath with you and will just end up pushing you around.'_

Gah, Kirigiri's brutally honest comments make a comeback... Though Nepgear feels another harsh blow to her esteem as if Peashy landed another hit to her solar plexus for the second time, she admits Kirigiri's right again. Togami was quite... difficult in terms of personality, so she's pretty sure he'll deliver even more esteem-crushing comments harsher than Kirigiri's in her direction... She should probably leave him be before he notices her presence...

Just as Nepgear turns her back to leave, she comes face to face with Fukawa who was glaring at her as if she committed some sort of unforgivable sin.

"You... you wench! Showing interest in Byakuya-sama...! I'm the only one who's allowed to gaze at him longingly in this position!"

Nepgear contains a scream that was to erupt from her mouth from the sheer surprise at Fukawa's sudden appearance (because you're supposed to be quiet in the library, after all!). So she opted to scream mentally in her head instead.

( **E-EEEEHH!?** W-when did Fukawa-san get here?!)

 _'She had already been here for quite some time, giving you the evil eye from another bookshelf nearby. You didn't notice?'_

Oh, so that crushing aura she felt a while ago wasn't her imagination—and wait, does that mean Fukawa does this all the time? That's actually both creepy and kind of sad—

"Unforgivable unforgivable unforgivable...!" Fukawa starts to mutter angrily as she starts to close in on her with hands looking like she's ready to strangle her or something.

Nepgear backs off, her back hitting the bookshelf as she frantically waves her arms in front of her as both a shield and as a means of keeping her away. "W-w-wait a minute! F-Fukawa-san, I was just about to leave...!"

"If the both of you are going to cause some unwanted disturbance, then **get out!** "

...

Guh... that was a terrible experience...

She should have never set foot in the library. Knowing that Togami and Fukawa frequent that place often, she should stay away from it for now, Nepgear thinks to herself wearily as she staggers out of the library. While Fukawa was distracted from Togami's yelling, Nepgear took it as a chance to slip out of the room. Maybe she'll consider talking to Togami when he's less of a snobbish prick or when Fukawa isn't around at some later date... Maybe...

 _'Didn't I warn you?'_ Is all Kirigiri says.

 **| Naegi Makoto |**

Nepgear passes by the School Store while walking by the corridors. Recalling her encounter with Hagakure, she wasn't able to give a present to him since she didn't have any items to give. Now would be a good chance to stock up on some items to give some to the others in the future.

She goes inside the room and starts up the MonoMono Machine again. She managed to find a lot of coins today, so she should be able to buy a lot of items, Nepgear thinks with a satisfied smile on her face. But really, just why does Monokuma leave out so many coins in various areas anyway? What's the whole point? Does he want students to go through a lot of searching just to obtain coins if they want to buy something from this room? ...Knowing Monokuma's sadistic behavior, that sounds about right.

A small pile of capsules was already starting to form on the floor, and Nepgear continued to insert more coins in anyway. She managed to get some sort of old-looking radio that was unexpectedly a lot more hi-tech than it looked like, and hasn't stopped since. Since while she was at it, she could start gathering more materials for her share machine, and get some other random items for future presents! And she got to geek out over new technology too, so it was win-win.

If Kirigiri had a physical body, she was sure she'd be staring blankly over Nepgear getting excited over technology again.

She was so caught up in all of it that she failed to notice the door opening as someone else comes in.

"Kirigiri-san?"

Stiffening in place, Nepgear slowly turns over to look at the person who just entered.

It was Naegi again, staring back at her with a look of slight surprise.

Talk about déjà vu.

Oh, wait—dah—she encountered Naegi again! Kirigiri would want her to get out of there right now—but—oohhh wait what about the capsules she'll have to gather all of them up—

She glimpses at Naegi and the concealed weariness in his eyes—remembers how he's been looking like that ever since this morning—and she promptly comes to a halt.

(...Kirigiri-san... Don't you think it's about time we stop avoiding Naegi-san already?)

 _'...'_

There was no answer, but Nepgear could sense that Kirigiri was listening.

(I mean... there's so much doubt going on through everyone's minds right now... everyone's acting all cautious and suspicious of one another... and... our treatment towards Naegi-san isn't really helping the situation... so I—even if it's just Naegi-san, I want us to get along better—u-um, please don't misunderstand! I'm not trying to boss you around, I just—)

 _'...Fine.'_

(E-eh?)

She hears Kirigiri release a small, resigned sigh. ' _I said it's fine. I won't tell you to run away. I suppose it's about time we end this farce, now that we know the reason for his secrecy.'_

(His secrecy... ah, you mean, the event with Oogami-san, isn't it? I believe the reason why he didn't tell it to us is because he didn't want us to panic over the fact that Oogami-san was actually a mole...)

 _'He must have wanted to talk to her first instead of carelessly giving out unverifiable information.'_

Ah, that kind of thing... it did sound like something he'd do. Because Naegi was a nice person. With that thought in mind, Nepgear can't help but smile, and finally addresses Naegi.

"Ah, Naegi-san."

He looked briefly surprised that she was actually talking to him this time, and seeing that she wasn't making any moves to run out of the room, he answers back. "Um, Kirigiri-san... you're not mad at me anymore...?"

"Ah, yes. There's no need for you to be worried. 'I'm' not mad at you anymore," Nepgear replies. "The reason why you didn't tell 'me' about Oogami-san was because you didn't want to make things complicated for her, right?"

Naegi nods. "Y-yeah..."

Nepgear smiles at him. "You were just being considerate. I don't blame you for that."

 _'However, that only shows he doesn't trust us at all.'_

Nepgear blinks at Kirigiri's sudden negative tone. Was she actually insulting him in spite of his act of kindness, she thinks as a sweatdrop is starting to form on her head.

But... she does have a point. It does hurt a bit knowing that he didn't entrust information to a friend, and especially when it's Kirigiri, Nepgear's sure she won't just blurt out information carelessly to others like that.

(A-ah, but I'm sure Naegi-san didn't mean anything bad about it...! He must have wanted to make sure...!)

She hears Kirigiri sigh, but strangely enough the annoyance it held didn't feel mocking in any way. ' _You're too soft, Nepgear. ...Ah, well. It's no use dwelling on matters that have already come to pass. I'm fine with it.'_

But is she really...? Still...

Nepgear looks at Naegi straight in the eye. "Naegi-san, I understand your reasons." Then she gives him a slightly rueful smile. "But I'd appreciate it if you'd trust a bit more in the future."

"I-it's not that I don't trust you or anything! I just..." Naegi starts to say.

"I know, I know. You just wanted to make sure of everything," Nepgear responds with a reassuring smile. "You don't have to get worked up about it anymore, Naegi-san. Let's put that behind us."

Seeing that he was seemingly forgiven, or at least there's no more bad feelings between them anymore, Naegi relaxes. "Y-yeah... thanks..." He starts to scratch his hair in a nervous manner, eyes glancing down at the pile of capsules by Nepgear's feet. "Um, so... that's a lot of capsules you have there."

Nepgear feels herself flush in embarrassment. Does he think she's a weirdo for buying so many items? An item-desperate weirdo...?! "G-gah...! U-um, t-this is...!" She stutters out, scrambling to gather all the capsules in a hurried manner.

She knows that she's got no more reason to run away from Naegi in an attempt to avoid him, but catching her like this is making her want to run out of the room from sheer embarrassment.

"O-oh, I can help you carry those," Naegi offers, seeing at how clumsily she's trying to collect all the capsules, as one or two would occasionally drop from her hands in her rush.

Nepgear freezes. "E-eh? You want to help?"

"Yeah, I don't mind at all," Naegi replies in affirmation.

Though greatly embarrassed and hesitant to do so at first, Nepgear eventually gives in and lets him help her, seeing as it would be impossible for her to carry all the capsules by herself. While carrying all of it on the way to the dormitory rooms, Nepgear had learned from Naegi that the reason why he came to the School Store was because he frequently goes there to buy some items too. Come to think of it, other than her and Naegi, does anyone else actually use the MonoMono Machine? ...Oh, well. For all she knew, the other students come in there too but she's not around to see it.

Once they've reached Kirigiri's room, they set down the numerous amount of capsules on the table in the room.

"Can I ask why do you need so much items for?" Naegi asks.

"Oh, well, um..." Nepgear lowers her head and starts to wring her hands together nervously, not making eye contact. "I-I'm making like... a little 'project' of sorts..."

"Project?" He repeats in a curious tone.

"Y-yes... I-I..." Wait, she can't just say that it's something to take her back to her dimension. That would sound ridiculous. Naegi might think she's crazy or something. "I've always liked building gadgets, s-so I was hoping to tinker around a bit with some of the items to pass the time..."

"So you like building machines, Kirigiri-san? How unexpected. I didn't know you were into those kind of things," Naegi says with surprise.

"O-oh, well, that's..." Nepgear continues to fidget. "I know it's not really a feminine hobby, so... I know it may seem kind of silly..."

"Really? I think it's pretty cool," Naegi tells her with a complimentary smile.

Nepgear starts to grow even more flustered. (C-cool...?!)

No one had really referred to her love of machinery as "cool" before. Sure, Neptune and all of her friends and even most of the people of Planeptune were aware of the CPU Candidate as a technology enthusiast (especially robots), but everyone had accepted that as a quirk of hers, or some even think of it as an interesting hobby that added to her otherwise bland character. She'd prefer not to think about the latter part, really. She also did most of her work in private, so she never got the opportunity to interact with others out there who was as passionate as she was. MAGES. has got to be the only other person she's managed to have a sort of scientific conversation with.

...And case in point, this was the first time she ever got complimented by a guy about it.

"R-really?" Nepgear stammers out.

He nods. "Yeah. U-um, actually..." Naegi's face grows shy all of a sudden as he brings out a capsule from his own pocket. "...I noticed how excited you were over that raygun yesterday... so I figured I'd give you something to make you feel better..."

Nepgear blushes in mortification. So he **did** see!

...Ah, but he bought her a present to make it up to her? Now Nepgear feels even more guilty. She wasn't even mad with him, but he still thought to buy her something even though she constantly avoided him.

"T-thank you very much!" Nepgear accepts the present graciously. Inside of it was a black device with a pink screen. Was it a game console?!

Naegi rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "Er, I don't know if you're even into gaming, but..."

Nepgear looks at him with shining eyes filled with admiration. "Naegi-san, this is great! I'm very grateful!"

To most people, a gaming console might not seem much, but for Nepgear this kind of item is exactly what she needs! After all, she's from Gamindustri, the land of living gaming personifications! So throwing in gaming console parts to the share machine would only strengthen the connection between dimensions! Yes, this was genius!

And she games once in a while too, you know. She **is** Neptune's sister.

Naegi smiles in relief. "Oh, that's good... you actually liked it! I'll be sure to bring you more items in the future."

"Eh? You'll bring me more materials? Y-you don't have to! I can't possibly think of troubling you over such an unnecessary thing!" Nepgear tells him worriedly.

"No, really. I'm okay with it..." He starts to scratch his cheek this time. "I mean, I visit the School Store most of the time. I like giving out items to those who need it, so..."

Nepgear's eyes somehow manage to shine in even brighter intensity. "U-uwaaah, Naegi-san! You truly are too kind!"

Seriously, where does all his nice guy personality come from? Nepgear finds herself inwardly thanking the parents who gave birth to him (she feels like Kirigiri could be rolling her eyes at her thoughts somewhere but she couldn't be sure).

 **Diiing doong... diing dooong...**

"Ahem, may I have your attention please? The time is now 10:00 PM. **'Nighttime'** is now in effect. The cafeteria is now off-limits, and the door will be locked momentarily. And with that, I wish you all a good night. Sweet dreams..."

The two glance up at the monitor in the room with the usual evening announcement.

"Oh, it's already this late. I need to get going back to my room now," Naegi says.

"A-ah, yes. Um, goodnight, Naegi-san! Thank you so much for your kindness!" Nepgear replies with a bow.

"Yeah, goodnight, Kirigiri-san," is what Naegi responds as he heads out of the room and closes the door.

Nepgear stares at the capsule she's holding. Her first present from a guy...

 _'The both of you seemed to have been enjoying yourselves.'_

Nepgear snaps out of her joyful trance at the sound of Kirigiri's voice. (O-oh! Kirigiri-san!)

 _'You two were so absorbed in your own world that I had to wonder if you had already forgotten my presence.'_

(W-what? T-there's no way I would possibly forget you, Kirigiri-san...! It's just that... I'm glad we're getting along with Naegi-san again.)

Nepgear feels like a great weight off her chest had been lifted from the relief. She was finally on speaking terms with Naegi. She honestly didn't know how long she could keep up avoiding him all the time. It was tiring, not to mention the almost kicked puppy-look Naegi always had when she did was incredibly guilt-inducing. She's just glad Kirigiri's gotten over her anger towards him.

Though she has to admit... what did make Kirigiri have such a strong reaction? She admits that her anger towards him for simply withholding one piece of information and avoiding him because of it seemed overboard...

Ah, could it be...?

(Kirigiri-san... about your behavior towards Naegi-san... did you perhaps consider him as a friend?)

 _'...What?'_

That was the only explanation she could think of. Based on the amount of trust Kirigiri seemed to place towards Naegi, she assumes that they've had some close interactions before. She also recalls that Kirigiri was the anti-social type with the conversations she had with the other students the other day, so the lack of social interaction obviously led to one thing... which was the lack of friends.

Huh, in a way it was kind of similar to Noire. Except that Kirigiri actually looks like the cool loner type while Noire's situation was viewed as pitiful by the others (especially on Neptune's part).

So, Naegi must have been the only person Kirigiri interacted enough on a daily basis for Kirigiri to have developed a certain fondness to. And so, when Naegi chose not to reveal his secret, Kirigiri obviously felt quite betrayed at his lack of trust. It must have affected Kirigiri more than it should have, which led to her actions against him.

(You had gotten pretty upset at Naegi-san because you felt like he didn't trust you. And that must have hurt you, since you thought of him as a friend, right? I mean, I know you don't talk to people very much, and...)

 _'...And the root of my actions must have obviously been caused by my inner loneliness? Is that what you're trying to say?'_

Nepgear blinks at Kirigiri's upfront tone. (U-um, well, that's...)

 _'I will not deny that I view Naegi-kun as a comrade. But I'm not that ardent to automatically refer to myself as his "friend" based on our limited interactions. If I were to jump easily on such emotions from assumptions, then that would be naivety on my part. I can't afford such risks.'_

Guh, Kirigiri would definitely be the type of worker or boss who would keep relationships strictly professional, Nepear thinks. But back to the matter at hand...

('Can't afford'...? What do you mean...?)

 _'...I remembered a bit.'_

(...! You mean...?!)

 _'Last night, I recalled some of my memories. Like I had suspected, the nature of my talent comes from my family upbringing. In appears in that line of work, having keep control of one's emotions is utterly essential; the ability to remain calm in most situations - being easily swayed by one's emotions could prove extremely fatal. And the act of engaging in casual activities with others merely seems like a waste of time.'_

Whatever it is that Kirigiri must do does sound pretty serious... it's no wonder she's always so calm. But not spending time with friends? Just what kind of childhood did Kirigiri have, anyway? She understands the dedication she has to her work, but still...

(Kirigiri-san... I'm not criticizing you for your dedication... but... I don't think it hurts making friends once in a while. I'd like to take back what I said earlier... you didn't consider Naegi-san as your friend... he is your friend...! I-I can only assume as much since I've only arrived in this dimension, but he seems like a good person and you do seem pretty close...! A-and, as much as possible I want everyone to get along...! Having close friendships is a good thing, you know...? I-it's good for you, and it'll really help in this predicament we're in so we won't have to kill each other...!)

Nepgear was rambling now, this much she knew. Oh goodness, she wasn't great when it came to speeches! She wasn't like her sister, who was more into these kind of things...

Also, she's sensing some slight amusement from Kirigiri, err, is that a good thing or what—

 _'And your point is?'_

(Oh, oh! Um...!)

Nepgear takes a deep breath and calms herself.

(Um... what I want to say is... Kirigiri-san, you don't have to do things by yourself. Please remember that there are other people who you can rely on too! A-and, I, Kirigiri-san... as your **friend** , I want to tell this to you!)

It may seem like she's taking things overboard, since they have only been together for a few days after all.

She already knows that they've already shared a mutual agreement of sorts, since they're literally bonded together. So there should be no reason for her to be so concerned about anything. Their cooperation with each other is guaranteed.

But she wants to at least establish a proper relationship between the both of them. Not just agreeing to work with each other for the sake of escaping this academy, but out of a genuine bond.

And looking upon Kirigiri as a friend is something she's sure she wants. Her dignified nature, somehow... it reminds her of her sister—specifically, her goddess form, as Purple Heart (except of course Kirigiri is a lot more serious).

Her train of thought is quite silly, really, but Nepgear says this from the bottom of her heart.

 _'...Honestly, that soft nature of yours. I can see why you and Naegi-kun get along so well, seeing as you both possess the same level of naivete.'_

(A-ah, erm, that's...)

Okay, now her embarrassment is starting to kick in again...

(W-well, y-you don't have to take it too seriously...! I just wanted to at least let you know that... so, um...)

 _'...Very well.'_

Nepgear blinks. (Huh...?)

 _'You raised some reasonable points. I admit I had overreacted to Naegi-kun's actions. I'll make sure to put more faith in him next time. And regarding the others, I'll have to say that at the moment there's nothing we can do about it, since no one's willing to listen. The only thing we can do is search for more information that can possibly ease Oogami-san's situation. We can do that tomorrow. We should rest.'_

(A-ah, yes...!)

Nepgear places the capsule Naegi had given to her on the table with the rest of the capsules, and starts to make her way into the bed, when suddenly...

 _'...Also.'_

Nepgear pauses as it looks like Kirigiri had more to say.

 _'...You know that we can sense each other's feelings. So it was unnecessary of you to have told me about your "feelings of friendship" in the first place.'_

Nepgear feels herself shrink in embarrassment. Ahh, as expected, she just got too carried away...

 _'...But I suppose I should say I'm grateful for it, nevertheless.'_

Oh, she can feel a large warmth spreading in her chest. Nepgear reaches out to place a hand over it.

This was a new reaction... could it be that Kirigiri's embarrassed...?

 _'Get to bed. Now.'_

(Y-yes!)

At Kirigiri's authoritative tone, she hurries to the bed and eventually falls asleep.

* * *

 _When Nepgear opened her eyes, she saw that there was nothing but darkness in her surroundings._

 _It was like she was standing in the middle of nowhere. The ground beneath her looked like empty water that constantly made ripples on every move she made._

 _'A dream...?'_

 _She looks around, and sees a purple figure up ahead. It must be a girl, judging on the long hair that flowed from her back. She was standing still in the distance, her back facing her._

 _There was something ominous about the figure's presence, something within her warned. But even so, out of curiosity, she takes a step forward as if to approach._

 _A gloved hand suddenly takes a hold of her shoulder, as if to stop her. She pauses, and turns around_ _—_

* * *

 **Diiing dooong... diiing dooong...**

"Good morning, **you guys**! It is now 7:00 AM! Rise and shiiine! Let's make today into the best day it can be!"

Nepgear's eyes abruptly open to hear the usual morning announcement. After hearing it so much these past few days, it's already starting to feel so repetitive. She almost wishes there's a "skip" option, but then again she doubts Monokuma would just let her turn off the monitor without any protest.

She rubs her eyes and starts to get up.

(Good morning, Kirigiri-san.)

 _'Good morning.'_

She thinks that she and Kirigiri had gotten a bit closer somehow after their talk last night, Nepgear thinks with a smile as she makes her way to the cafeteria. There was no heavy weight in her chest today, so she views this as a good way to start the morning.

"Good morning, Asahina-san, Hagakure-san," Nepgear greets as she enters the dining hall.

"Oh, mornin' to you too, Kirigiri-chi," Hagakure replies.

"Ah, good morning, Kirigiri-san," Asahina greets back with a tired smile. Though she tried to make her tone cheerful, it was fairly obvious she was still troubled about Oogami's situation.

Looks like it was only the two of them who were here at the moment. It was kind of an unspoken rule that they would have to wait until everyone in the group was present, and only then they could start eating; so it wouldn't be impolite.

Nepgear sits on their usual table as she starts to wait for the others along with Asahina and Hagakure. Nepgear could sense a bit of tension lingering in the air, and noticed Asahina was sitting quite some distance away from Hagakure. Even so, they tried to at least make some idle discussions here and there to avoid getting caught up in the suffocating silence.

Minutes later, someone else enters the room.

(Ah, Fukawa-san...?)

It was Fukawa who had come in, face looking like the whole world was out to get her as always. Though, she looked extra furious than usual today, and was currently stomping over in Asahina's direction.

Uh-oh. That can't be a good sign.

"Y-y-you! Insolent piece of meat! You still haven't repaid your show of disrespect to Byakuya-sama's perfectly handsome face!" Fukawa yells.

"Piece of meat"? What was that about? ...Oh, so she was referring to Asahina's...

Asahina glares at Fukawa from her seat. "What? You mean that jerk? He deserved it, with the way he was talking about Sakura-chan like that."

"Byakuya-sama was only telling the truth about that muscle-freak of a traitor! And for your treatment towards Byakuya-sama, you need to **pay!** "

Asahina's eyes narrow and her glare hardens. "What was that...?" She stands up from her seat, her voice dangerously low. "What's with that... going on and on about Sakura-chan's a traitor... even up until now... you people still don't understand!"

Fukawa takes a slight step back, looking intimidated by Asahina, but still presses on anyway. "W-what? Going to get violent with me, cow udder? Showing your true nature! You're no better than that brute you call a friend!"

"Oh, I'll show you violent, all right!" Asahina responds angrily as she rushes forward at Fukawa.

Nepgear and Hagakure stand up from their seats in alarm, looking on with shock at Asahina and Fukawa who were starting to wrestle with each other.

 _'You should stop them.'_

(E-eh?! That might be easy to say, but...!)

Looking at the way things are now, it'd be hard to interfere with them without getting up hurt in the process too. Nepgear feels like her body had frozen in place.

During the two's skirmish, it just so happens that they ended up hitting a nearby table with a pepper container on top of it, causing it to fall over and spill. Some of it must have gotten on Fukawa, as she lets out a sneeze afterwards. Taking her place, was of course, Genocider Sho.

"Oh, oh? What's this?" Seeing that Asahina was still in the middle of grappling her, in a flash she whips out two scissors and cuts at Asahina's arm.

"Ah!" Asahina cries out as she grips her arm and falls down to the floor.

" **Aaaaaaahhhh!** " Hagakure lets out a loud shriek that sounded a bit too high-pitched for normal standards, Nepgear couldn't help but absently note.

Nepgear manages to snap out of the trance she seemed to be in at seeing Asahina's pained form. She immediately rushes to her side. "Asahina-san! Are you hurt?!" Asahina doesn't answer and winces at her arm.

She hears the sound of running footsteps nearby and sees Naegi rush in. "W-what's wrong?!"

"W-we got trouble, Naegi-chi! **B-big** trouble!" Hagakure tells Naegi in a panicked tone as he points a finger in their direction. "I-it's Genocider! She killed 'Hina-chi!"

Genocider Sho shakes her head. "Nonono, she ain't dead! No matter how you slice it, she ain't dead!"

True, labeling Asahina as dead when she was clearly still alive and breathing seemed over-the-top... guess Hagakure's panicking must have let him come to his own conclusions.

Naegi comes over to Asahina's other side with worry etched in his features. "H-how did this happen?"

"W-well, that is, Asahina-san and Fukawa-san..." Nepgear fumbles out for words, finding herself unable to coherently form a sentence.

Hagakure is the one that manages to explain things, though incredibly freaked out he still is at the moment. "'Kawa-chi and 'Hina-chi started going at it... and then some pepper on one of the tables got knocked over..."

"And that made Fukawa-san sneeze..." Naegi mutters.

"Monster honkers **and** a nice figure's goin' **way** too far! Look at me! I'm flat as a board! **This** is realistic!" Genocider Sho yells in rage. What's with that speech? It sounds like something Blanc would be raging about instead. "Or does my collarbone turn you on?! I love me some good collarbone!" She squeals, hugging her own body. Now she just turned Plutia again! ...Okay, perhaps that's too creepy even for Plutia's standards...

Her mood taking yet another shift, Genocider Sho releases an irritated sigh as she places a hand on her hips. "Oh, whatever. Just get this cow out of here, you undesirable boys and boring-looking girl!"

Nepgear feels an eye twitch. (Boring?!)

Genocider Sho leers at them, scissors raised. "If you don't... I'll end up pleasuring myself! By hackin' and slashin' and choppin' her up!"

Okay, that should be the go signal that they should get out of here, and **now**.

"C-come on, let's get Asahina-san to the infirmary!" Naegi says frantically, as he and Nepgear support Asahina from each side as they start to bring her out of the room.

"W-wait, lemme come with you guys too!" Hagakure calls out as he rushes over to follow them.

"Tick tock, tick tock!" They could hear Genocider Sho say in a cheerfully mocking tone, then burst into a series of laughter afterwards.

They could hear her laughing even when they went out into the hallway... oh goodness, that girl was a complete nutcase.

They took Asahina to the infirmary and took care of her wound. Nepgear knew some basic first aid from Compa and managed to treat the gash on her arm, with Naegi and Hagakure helping out every now and then.

The wound wasn't too serious, it should heal fairly quickly. Though what Nepgear was concerned about was... was she going colorblind or was the blood actually pink...?

Nepgear shoves those thoughts in the back of her head as she directs her attention back to Asahina who seemed to have recovered from her shock. "T-thanks..."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Naegi asks worriedly.

Asahina nods weakly. "Y-yeah, they're just scratches..."

"Still, that was close, dude! If I hadn't screamed, you would'a been done for!" Hagakure says with a laugh.

 _'That's not something to be proud of.'_ Kirigiri remarks, sounding unimpressed.

Nepgear sweatdrops. Well, at least he was trying to give some comedy to the situation...

"Thank you very much. Have a nice day," Asahina retorts sarcastically.

Naegi decides to interrupt before even more hostility ends up happening. "Anyway... that incident... it was about Oogami-san, wasn't it?"

"She kept badmouthing Sakura-chan... so I couldn't help myself..." Asahina replies sadly. "I know I got what I was coming to me... but I couldn't take it anymore... I mean... she was saying crap about a good friend of mine..."

Tears were starting to well up in Asahina's eyes, making Nepgear inwardly panic because no, she doesn't like seeing people cry—

Then the door flew open with such force it was a miracle it didn't end up breaking.

"Asahina?" Oogami asks in alarm, coming over to approach, gazing intensely once she gets a look at Asahina's torn sleeve. "Where... did you get those wounds?"

"Ah, no, no! T-these are nothing! It's no big deal!" Asahina answers frantically in an attempt to reassure her.

Oogami turns to face her, Naegi and Hagakure, who were standing over to the side. Nepgear can't help but shrink back at Oogami's frightening gaze. "Naegi, Hagakure, Kirigiri... what happened here?!"

Hagakure raises his arms defensively. "I-it wasn't me! Genocider did it, dude! It was all that crazy serial killer's doing!"

Oogami clenches her fists as her bangs shadow her eyes. Alarm bells were ringing in Nepgear's mind, her instincts in battling warning of her of the rising danger levels. " **Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!** How... **dare**... you lay a finger on Asahina... How dare you go after Asahina and not me... **How dare youuuuuu!** "

"Eeeeeeeek!" Hagakure was not the only one to freak out this time. Nepgear actually went ahead and screamed with him. Naegi was rendered speechless.

Asahina goes up to her and attempts to calm her down. "I-I'm fine, I'm fine! Really, it was just a scratch!"

But Oogami still looked incredibly outraged. "Grr... unforgivable... **UNFORGIVABLE!** " She moves her stare towards Hagakure, who looked like he was ready to wet his pants at any second now. "I am the one who should be reviled... why do you not go after me?! **WHYYYYYYY?!** "

"H-h-h-heeeeelp meeeee!" Hagakure screams in terror as he runs out of the room. Nepgear couldn't blame him, really. Anyone would cower under the harsh aura Oogami was exuding. Even she could feel Kirigiri's slightly intimidated, but she still continues to retain her composure.

 _'We should calm her down.'_

(Eeeehh!? I-I don't even know where to begin calming her down...!)

If she couldn't even stop Asahina and Fukawa from fighting, then Oogami was on another complete level!

Thankfully, Naegi is the one who attempts it instead. "O-Oogami-san! Please calm down!"

And just like that, the intimidating aura dies down. "I do not... need to be stopped... I am fine... I will do nothing except... **right what has been wronged**..."

Both Naegi and Nepgear stare at her in confusion. More ominous-sounding words!

"Farewell," Oogami says as she leaves the room.

"H-hold on! Sakura-chan, wait!" Asahina cries out as she chases after her.

Silence comes upon the room as only Naegi and Nepgear are the ones left behind. Neither say anything, still overwhelmed by Oogami's display just moments ago.

Then a growl comes out and breaks the silence.

Nepgear flushes as she covers her stomach with her hands. That's got to be the second time it happened, how embarrassing. Naegi stares at her with slight amusement.

"Want to eat breakfast?"

"A-ah... yes..."

* * *

They had gotten so caught up in the flow of events that they had forgotten that they still hadn't eaten breakfast. Nepgear and Naegi had silently went over to the cafeteria, Genocider Sho thankfully not in sight, and ate their meals there.

"Hey, Kirigiri-san... about Oogami-san's situation... what do you think about it?" Naegi suddenly asks.

Nepgear herself was at a loss on what do anymore, with all the unexpected events happening one after another. However, she remembers Kirigiri's words and decides to tell him the same thing she told her. "Um, K—" She almost said "Kirigiri-san told me", but everyone think she's Kirigiri at the moment, so that would sound totally weird—"I mean, I think there's nothing we can do about the situation right now. No one's willing to listen, so... the best thing we can hope for is to find new information."

"I see..." Naegi replies in a gloomy tone, gazing down at his plate of food sadly.

In an attempt to divert this depressing mood, Nepgear switches to conversing with him about other topics. She figures she can use this opportunity to get to know him more, seeing as it's been a while since she engaged in a casual conversation with him. She learned about how Naegi managed to get into the academy, as even though he had no special talent whatsoever (except, well, being "optimistic than most" in his words, and Nepgear found herself thinking that sounds about right), he got accepted through winning the raffle, as the " **Super High School Level Good Luck** ", because the academy researches the phenomenon of luck, apparently. Though he's starting to doubt his own luck with all the things that happen to him... (It's the main character curse, Nepgear regretfully thinks to herself).

He also told her a bit about his family. Nepgear was greatly interested upon hearing that he had a sibling.

"So Naegi-san, you have a younger sister? That's so nice! What is she like? I happen to have an older sister, so I'd like to hear your perspective as a big brother!" She asks eagerly. Being a little sister herself, she can't help but want to know more.

"Her name is Komaru. I'd say we're kinda similar with our optimistic nature, but she's prone to being easily nervous," Naegi explains. Huh, in a way she reminds Nepgear of herself..."If only she could become more confident with herself, I'm sure she'll accomplish a lot. She's a big fan of manga; she collects a lot of volumes. And she likes listening to songs currently trending." He spoke with such fondness in his tone, Nepgear can tell he's a good big brother to her. However, his face grows grim with his next words. "...I'm worried though... something might have happened to my family..."

Nepgear widens her eyes. "Happen...?! What could have possibly...?!"

"...Monokuma once gave us these disks. It showed that something terrible might have come upon them..." He clenches his fists. "That's why I want to get out of here. Aside from escaping this killing game, I need to find out what happened to them."

Komaru's taste and hobbies... it was just that of an ordinary schoolgirl's... and Naegi was also just a normal student... so why... did they have to get involved in such events?

Nepgear wanted to say "It'll be fine!", but she felt like it would come off as insensitive. So she just ended up saying, "...I hope your family is all right..."

"Yeah, me too," Naegi responds in a slightly melancholic manner, but then he turns to look at Nepgear with confusion. "But, Kirigiri-san, I didn't know you had an older sister. I thought that your amnesia made you forget about everything."

... **D'OH!** That's **right**!

Oh, goodness, she just got so excited that she let it slip out!

She could feel Kirigiri shaking her head at her right now. ' _You were too careless. See, this is why I tell you to watch yourself when you get emotional.'_

(I-I know, I know! I'll just have to think up of an excuse...!)

"U-um, o-oh, about that...! I, actually... have been recovering some of my memories... and I just remembered that I had an older sister...!" Nepgear stammers out awkwardly.

"Oh, really? That's good to hear! Your amnesia seemed to be so severe... it actually... makes me think that you're like **a whole different person**..." Naegi responds.

(...!)

"I-is that so? I-I get that quite often, ahaha," Nepgear says with a forced smile. She didn't know why she was so uncomfortable all of a sudden, it seemed like his eyes were scrutinizing her somehow...

Was he actually suspicious about her identity?

But, according to what Mini-Histy said, the people of this dimension will be unable to recognize her as someone other than Kirigiri, so...!

Their discussion gets cut short when Asahina comes running in the room, her face looking deathly pale.

"Naegi...! Kirigiri-san...!"

She and Naegi stand from their seats, sensing something is wrong.

"What's the matter, Asahina-san?" Naegi asks.

"S-something's wrong with Sakura-chan... in... the rec room!" Asahina answers in a panicked tone.

They rush out of the cafeteria and head towards the rec room on the third floor. They peer through the window in the door, and find Oogami sitting in a chair, seemingly not moving.

Nepgear's heartbeat starts to accelerate, and not for a good reason.

 _'...What happened to Oogami-san?'_

Nepgear ends up repeating the question to Asahina, who answers: "I was just passing through... and I happened to see Sakura-chan through the window... but the door... wouldn't open... I pounded on the door... and called out to her... but she couldn't seem to hear me..." Asahina starts to tear up in fright. "What should we do?! What do we do?!"

 _'Obviously, the first thing to do is to find a way into the room.'_

(R-right...)

"But... how do we get it open? It seems locked... and we can't break down the door..." Because there was Monokuma's school rules to remember, unfortunately.

 _'It's not locked. The rec room doesn't have a lock.'_

(H-huh?! Then...!)

"U-um, apparently the rec room doesn't have a lock..." Nepgear voices out Kirigiri's thoughts.

"What? But why won't the door open...?" Naegi asks out loud in confusion.

 _'Something must be pressed up against it from inside the room... like a chair, perhaps. But regardless, the school rules don't apply here. It specifically states that only **"locked doors are forbidden from being destroyed"**.'_

(I see...! So it should be okay...!)

"The rules...! This isn't a locked door, so it should be fine if we break down this door!" Nepgear explains in a hurried manner.

"Ah, right...! I think we can get in easier by breaking down the window..." Naegi says. "But we're going to need something..."

"H-hold on! I'll get something...!" Asahina replies as she runs off, and returning a few minutes later with a broom in her hands. "H-here, I found it in that classroom over there..."

With shaky hands, she gives it over to Naegi, who accepts it with a nod and focuses his gaze on the door up ahead. "You two! Stand back!"

She and Asahina comply and take a few steps backward as Naegi raises the broom up high and smashes it on the window. He reaches his arm into the broken hole in the window and pushes away the chair blocking the door with a grunt.

With the obstacle out of the way, the three of them rush into the room to check up on Oogami.

"Oogami-san!" She and Naegi had ended up calling out Oogami's name at the same time and approach her motionless body.

Naegi places a hand onto her shoulder, and his face grows pale.

 **Ding dong, ding dong!**

"We got a corpse here! We'll be holding a **Class Trial** pretty soon, so make use of the time you've got!"

...

...

...

...

...

...

It took a while for the words to process in Nepgear's head.

(C-c-c— **COOOOOOOOOOORRPSEEE?!** )

* * *

 **And the return of in-game texts have come. But I do try to mix in original content, honest!**

 **So, I was actually considering on making Nepgear find out a way to prevent deaths from occurring... but I figured that it would turn out to be those typical "OC finds a way to save everyone" thing, so I went with the plot. Also, plot-wise, Nepgear needs to witness a death for her to get the gravity of the entire situation (I'M SORRY OOGAMI). ...I know, I'm being mean to Nepgear again.**

 **Anyways, when I wrote this chapter it came off as originally angsty, but I remembered I had the "Humor" category tagged in, so I still tried to insert comedic stuff. I dunno if that worked out... oh well?**


	5. So Much Information To Process

**_Fallenstreet01:_ Lol, I hadn't intended for Kirigiri to come off as jealous in that part. XD Because the ship is different, Kirigiri's feelings towards Naegi are that of camaraderie in this universe (coughandmostofheraffectionseemstobegettingdirectedatNepgearinsteadcough. But the nature of their relationship is that of a sisterly one, I assure you). Though Naegiri is my OTP in canon; I had to sacrifice their shipping in here since I didn't want to involve some weird love triangle since that's kind of cliché in my opinion. As for Nepgear and witnessing a death... well, she'll manage somehow. XD If you want to understand the HDN references here, I'd recommend mk2/Re;Birth 2 since that's the game that Nepgear first appeared in.**

 ** _raven:_ Thank you, I'm glad you think that it's worth your read! **

**_Guest:_ Thanks, the support really encourages me to continue writing! **

**Ahem... so yeah, I know that this chapter is ridiculously long overdue. I was planning on uploading it at an earlier date, but the release of GE2 and research papers (those things will be the death of me, I swear) kinda hindered me from finishing it. But finally, here it is! I honestly have no idea if anyone's still bothering to read this, but I am determined to finish this fic until the end!**

 **DISCLAIMER: NAO I DON'T OWN ANYTHING**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 04: ALL ALL APOLOGIES (4)**

 **(I'm sorry that this had to happen)**

* * *

 **-DAYTIME-**

If Nepgear had to admit, she wasn't used to death.

Sure, in Gamindustri, you could get knocked out during battle. But that was nothing a revival item couldn't fix.

With the use of a Life Fragment, energy would flow back into your body and restore your HP. Then you would get back up, go back into battle, and everything would be all right again.

That was the extent of "dying" as far as Nepgear knew. There was no such thing as a permanent death; the Neptunia series was far too light-hearted for that!

...Right, there was the Conquest ending that traumatized players everywhere, but it wasn't canon! It was just an alternate ending! Everyone was currently alive and well, there was no more world-ending foe out to threaten Gamindustri's existence, there was no more depressing moments, and no more deaths.

So... being faced with something like this... is just so sudden.

Reality starts to distort around her, her eyes taking in Oogami's slumped, unmoving form as her mind spins and thinks oh goodness corpse— _there was Vert laying on the ground severely wounded and barely clinging to life_ —she's not moving— _and she watches the twins cry in each other's arms that they don't want to die_ —Oogami-san's dead why Oogami-san— _Neptune was still smiling at her, despite the sword that was plunged through her abdomen_ —dead dead dead someone **actually died** —

 _'...ep... ear...!'_

 _'...Ne... ge... ar!'_

 _ **'Nepgear!'**_

—(...Huh?)

At the sound of Kirigiri's voice, Nepgear snaps out of the blank trance she was under. And just like that, her mind starts to clear and return to the situation at hand.

(...Kirigiri-san...?)

 _'I see you've finally come back to your senses. You had completely stopped responding for a moment there.'_

(A-ah... I'm sorry... I just...)

 _'Either way, now is not the time to be overwhelmed. I need you to examine Oogami-san's body.'_

Nepgear could feel herself slightly pale at her words. (E-examine...? D-does that mean I have to...)

 _'Yes, that would require you to touch her body.'_

(...! B-but I...!)

Nepgear gazes at Oogami's still body with quivering eyes, and feels the discomfort swirling around her stomach, making her queasy. She lingered on Oogami's supposed corpse only for a few seconds before she abruptly lowers her head and shuts her eyes, unable to stare at it any longer as she fists the fabric of her skirt.

(I... I...! I can't do it! T-touching a dead body is... I...)

Some part of Nepgear still couldn't register the events happening. Someone actually died? Someone actually got killed? Nononono, she doesn't want to believe this is actually happening—it's bringing up bad memories that are sinking into her head and making her head pound and making her want to puke—

 _'Nepgear, Oogami-san is dead. That is the reality of the situation.'_

(...!)

It felt like a harsh force had forcefully slammed Nepgear's thoughts into an abrupt stop at the severity of Kirigiri's words.

 _'Attempting to run away from that reality is foolishness. The facts are set before your eyes. There's no use denying it.'_

(...) A small whimper escapes from her throat.

 _'...Nepgear. I am aware that you are not accustomed to death. But, our current situation is not the time for hesitation.'_

The sudden firm, but slightly gentle tone on Kirigiri's voice is what makes Nepgear react.

(...'Not the time'...?)

 _'You remember the Class Trials, correct?'_

Nepgear gives a slight nod.

 _'You had asked about it before, and now would be the appropriate time to explain. When someone is murdered, after a few hours of investigation, a Class Trial happens. During the Class Trial is when we will discuss and pinpoint whom we seem to be the culprit behind the student's murder. Once the discussion is over, we are required to vote whom the student whom we deem guilty...'_

(...And then the murderer gets executed, right...?)

 _'Yes. However, if we get it wrong, then it is us who will be executed instead; and only the murderer will be allowed to escape the academy.'_

A hoarse sound of discomfort manages to escape Nepgear's throat, her face blanching at the thought. She now remembers that Naegi and the others were the ones who had mentioned that students who were found guilty would get punished, but never went into further detail about it as that was when they had noticed how she was looking as ill as she was now.

 _'You understand the stakes we have now, don't you? The limited time we are given should be spent for investigation.'_

Right, for gathering important evidence and crucial details for the trial..., Nepgear affirms reluctantly. Nepgear was still feeling shocked about the entire situation, but knows she has to act. She can't afford to waste any precious time for investigating.

She lifts her head and stares at Oogami's body. She has to do this... Kirigiri's depending on her for this... she has to...

 _'Think of this as for Oogami-san's sake.'_

(For Oogami-san...)

That's right. Oogami died. So that meant someone must have murdered her. She needs to find out who did this to her. It's the least she can do to honor Oogami's life.

Nepgear takes a deep breath as she shuts her eyes, mentally preparing herself for what she's about to do. She presses her two palms together as if she were praying, sending a mental "Excuse me for this, Oogami-san!" for the examining she's going to have to do to her body.

After exhaling all the oxygen she must've deeply absorbed, she opens her eyes and slowly raises a hand towards Oogami's body.

Naegi, who had been standing beside her silently in shock, notices her actions and faces her with widened eyes. "Kirigiri-san...?"

"I-I'm going to examine Oogami's body..." Nepgear replies, feeling Naegi continue to stare at her. Nepgear tried not to feel too self-conscious with the way he was watching her, but with the way she was raising a trembling hand like this was probably making her look rather pitiful—wait, no! No depressing thoughts! She needs to focus! Focus...!

 _'Now, the first thing you should do is check her pulse.'_

Oh, checking a person's pulse... Compa had once informed her of this.

 _"You put your fingers in either their wrist or their neck! It's to see how many beats the person has! Though, if they don't, then that means the person's gone bye-bye."_

...That honestly could have been phrased better, but it was Compa after all. Recalling her friend's teachings, Nepgear raises two of her fingers and decides to check Oogami's pulse on the less uncomfortable spot, and that was her wrist. Though touching cold flesh still ended up making her uncomfortable anyway, but after a few seconds tick by, there was no pulse.

(Oogami-san's really...) Nepgear retracts her hand with a sorrowful expression.

 _'Well, not like we don't know that, anyway.'_

A-as expected of Kirigiri... still so matter-of-fact..., Nepgear thought with a sweatdrop.

Confirming that Oogami really was dead, Kirigiri told Nepgear to move on and examine the noticeable wounds that may have been the cause of her death. Nepgear blinked warily at the sight of the pink liquid that was dripping down from Oogami's head.

It was very unusual... she remembers seeing this on Asahina's wounds too. (Kirigiri-san... what is this...?)

 _'What are you talking about? That's blood.'_

Nepgear goes pale at her words, feeling a mixture between discomfort and incredulity. (B-blood...? B-but why is it pink...?)

 _'Pink?'_

Kirigiri sounded genuinely confused. This made Nepgear think to herself. Apparently, blood was color pink in their world... it certainly looked strange, since the desperately optimistic side of her had thought at first that Oogami had merely been splashed with paint and was actually just unconscious, but the metallic smell on her that was undoubtedly the smell of blood only confirmed this fact; so this meant that "pink blood" was normal here.

Still, having pink blood come out from a person made for a very bizarre sight. The conclusion Nepgear could have to this occurrence could only be...

(Censorship...)

Ah, most likely because having actual blood would look even more brutal to witness. Nepgear is a bit thankful for this since it does help ease her distress a bit.

 _'Nepgear, I honestly have no idea what you are going on about.'_

(O-oh! Um... just one of my "otherdimensional perspectives"... Ahaha...)

 _'...Based on your words, I take it that you view the blood differently?'_

(Y-yes, something like that...)

 _'Hmm... I see.'_ She hears Kirigiri take in a thoughtful tone, as if she were briefly contemplating about it. ' _Well, no matter. It doesn't change that it's still blood. Let's continue with our examination.'_

(U-um, yes...) Nepgear sweatdrops slightly at Kirigiri's dismissiveness once again, and continues to inspect Oogami's head.

 _'Judging by the blood flowing from her head, the source of the wound must have been dealt there. We should take a closer look.'_

"..." Nepgear's hand hovered on top of Oogami's hair.

 _'Nepgear.'_ Kirigiri says in a firm tone.

(O-okay, okay...! I-I'm going to do it...!)

Though she looked very uncomfortable with the idea, Nepgear slowly places her hand on top of Oogami's head and runs a hand through her hair, spouting numerous apologies towards Oogami at how it's like as if she's giving her dead body an awkward head pat and ohhhh goodness some blood seems to have gotten on her fingers gah just wash it off later wash it off later—

 _'Hm, there seems to be two bumps on her head. That means she was struck on the head twice by a blunt object.'_

(T-twice? That's pretty harsh...)

 _'When it comes to murder and the intentions behind it, people don't usually hold back.'_

...Well, Nepgear had to admit she had that one coming...

Kirigiri then makes Nepgear examine Oogami's other obvious injury, which was the blood that had pooled from her mouth. Nepgear leaned down to get a better look at it, and after Kirigiri had repeatedly pressed her to do so, Nepgear had opened Oogami's mouth for closer inspection, where they confirmed that Oogami had vomited the blood. But from what cause, they had no idea at the moment. But, according to Kirigiri, there's no doubt that it's involved with the cause of her death.

There was also this **wrapper** that was near Oogami's shoe. It was colored white with red spots decorated all over it. Because of its colorful design and small size, Kirigiri deduced it must be a candy wrapper of some sorts. Why a candy wrapper was present in a crime scene was something Nepgear couldn't help but ponder on; maybe Oogami had decided to eat something sweet in her last moments or something. Kirigiri dismissed the idea and told her it must come from another cause, but she herself doesn't know the exact reason, so it was something to think about at a later time.

But what draws further attention was this **yellow powder** that was on Oogami's shoe. Judging from the scent, Kirigiri concluded that it was some sort of chemical powder, and must have come from the chemical lab. Why it was there, was of course, something that had to be investigated about.

Nepgear briefly scans Oogami's body once again, but doesn't see anymore wounds that needed to be looked at. Kirigiri herself agrees that there's nothing else worth examining, so Nepgear finally straightens her posture and releases a deep breath that she wasn't aware that she was even holding.

The sound of various footsteps enters Nepgear's ears, and both her and Naegi turn to the door to see a blank-faced Asahina come in the room, followed by Hagakure, Togami and Fukawa. At the sight of Oogami's corpse, the three of them react.

" **Whoa!** Ogre?!" Hagakure.

"So Oogami's been murdered..." Togami... and why was he looking so smug?

"...!" Fukawa's eyes roll in the back of her head and collapses on the very spot.

"A-ah!? Fukawa-san?!" Nepgear cries out in alarm.

 _'There's no need for you to worry.'_

(Eh?) Nepgear blinks at Kirigiri's calm voice, when her attention is suddenly drawn to Fukawa's body spring back up after a few seconds, a large tongue swaying out of her mouth accompanied with loud cackling.

" **PA-PA-PAAAAAAN!** " A sound effect...?! And oh goodness, where'd the scissors come from?! "IIIII'VE ARRIVEED!" She then also takes notice of Oogami's body sitting still in the room, and in a blink of an eye the scissors were gone from her hands. How the goodness does she do that?! "...Ah, lookie here! It's a corpse! A freakin' dead body! Is that Big Girl?! She dead?!"

(G-Genocider Sho...?) Needless to say, Nepgear was rather confused at her sudden appearance.

 _'Fukawa-san has a fear of blood. She faints at the mere sight of it.'_

(And the fainting makes Genocider Sho come out... A serial killer being afraid of blood... that's kind of ironic...)

 _'Only Fukawa-san has this condition. Genocider Sho does not.'_

(E-eh... is that so...) Now Nepgear was feeling more confused. And probably weirded out. People with split personalities sure are a unique case...

"That's right..." Nepgear snaps out of her thoughts and turns her gaze towards Asahina suddenly speaking up, her head tilted down that her bangs were covering her eyes, and had both of her hands clenched tightly at her sides. "Sakura-chan was murdered... by **one of you three!** Hagakure! Togami! Fukawa!" She bursts out, lifting her head to glare at the three with tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

"W-whaaat?!" Hagakure exclaims in shock at her accusation.

"You sound awfully certain for not having done any investigation," Togami retorts.

"The three of you acted like Sakura-chan was the bad guy! I don't need to do some investigating to know that one of you three were the ones who did it! Sakura-chan asked the three of you to meet her here in the rec room before lunch! I know! She told me! So obviously one of you three killed her!" Asahina yells in anger.

Nepgear and Naegi's eyes widen at the information.

"I-is this true?" Naegi turns to the three in confirmation.

Togami merely "Hmphs" in response and crosses his arms. "Yes, there was a note to that effect that was left under my bedroom door. But who the hell would be stupid enough to just waltz on in and let that monster kill them?"

Nepgear winces at the harsh term Togami had used. Calling Oogami a monster? Really? In front of Asahina?

Predictably, Asahina doesn't react well to his words. She narrows her eyes and clenches her fists tighter. "You..." She growls out.

"S-so! You didn't go?" Naegi steps in, continuing on with his questioning to try and prevent a fight from possibly occurring.

"Of course not. I tore the note and threw it away. I made no contact with Oogami whatsoever today. Satisfied? You should know better than to meaninglessly spout out accusations without being aware of the full situation," Togami replies in a snide manner.

Asahina didn't look satisfied at his reply at all and continued to glower angrily at him, so Naegi hurriedly turns his gaze towards Hagakure with a silent look that urged him to speak up next.

Hagakure jumps a bit at the stares that were starting to fall on him. "W-wah... eh... n-no, I didn't! L-like I'd go see her! The last time I saw Ogre was when we brought 'Hina-chi down to the infirmary, dude! A-after that, I never saw her again!" He was being rather stuttery and panicky with his explanation that only increased one's suspicions instead. Nepgear could feel Kirigiri's judging stare piercing Hagakure in the back of her mind.

"Meh, don't bother asking me. It was the other me who got the note. Don't know nuthin'," Genocider Sho says with a flippant wave of her hand.

(U-um... what...?)

 _'Fukawa-san and Genocider Sho have separate memories. Neither of them can contain the memory of the other one who is in control.'_

Nepgear sweatdrops. (That sounds... complicated. How are we going to get any information from Fukawa—um, I mean, Genocider Sho-san if she can't remember?)

 _'There's no other choice but to wait for her to turn back into Fukawa-san.'_

Oh... Nepgear's not sure on how Fukawa turns back into her "old self", so it might actually take a while before she does...

"...I don't believe any of you. You all sound suspicious. I still say that among the three of you was definitely the one who murdered her!" Asahina says with a glare.

"Hey, hey, hey, as much as I enjoy watching people be at each other's throats as much as the next guy—" Who it was was too obvious that Nepgear was only mildy surprised at his appearance, "— **You guys** should save all of that banter for the Class Trial! It's no fun if **you guys** already know who did it when I went through all the trouble of preparing..." A dramatic pause, then Monokuma stretches his arms outward, "... **The Monokuma File 4!** "

Nepgear hears beeping noises resound throughout the room. It was coming from their ElectroiDs. Nepgear and the others brings out their ElectroiDs to check out what update had appeared this time.

A head of Monokuma spun in the middle of the screen akin to a "loading sign" for a few seconds before the screen was completely invaded with blackness as an image of Oogami popped up accompanied with white text.

 **VICTIM: Oogami Sakura**

 **TIME OF DEATH: Approximately 12:00 P.M.**

 **The corpse was discovered in the recreation room on the third floor of the school zone. The victim appears to have been struck over the head with great force. Aside from that, there are no other external wounds. Additionally, the victim has vomited a considerable volume of blood.**

(This is...)

 _'The "Monokuma File" is the detailed information Monokuma provides about the victim's cause of death for investigation.'_

(It's a surprisingly helpful move on Monokuma-san's part... But, well... We know the state of Oogami-san's body already, since you already examined it, Kirigiri-san...)

With Kirigiri's analyzing skills, there might even be no need for the Monokuma File anyway!, is what Nepgear briefly thinks to herself.

 _'You give my abilities far too much credit. I need to have complete investigation of the scene in order to piece the events together. I'm not some super genius that can see the truth right then and there.'_

O-oh, that would be rather unrealistic...

 _'I just happen to have an edge over the others because this is an ability I most likely specialize in. The files are meant to brief those who are not able to assess the cause with their own ability. It's fair that way.'_

(O-oh, right. I'm sorry, that was a bit insensitive of me...) If it wasn't for Kirigiri being merged with her, Nepgear wouldn't have been able to know this kind of information in the first place.

 _'...And there's no one else better than Monokuma to be the one to provide details on the victim. He's the one who witnesses everything happen, after all.'_

(...!) Nepgear feels a depressing weight drop onto her body at the realization. It... made a disturbing amount of sense...

While the rest were reading over the information, Monokuma places his hands on his hips with a satisfied look on his face. "Welp, looks like my job here is done. Gotta blast!"

Before Monokuma could leave, Naegi calls out to him. "Um, wait just a second."

"Hmm?"

"Oogami-san... she said that she intended to do battle with you... the mastermind. Maybe you two got into another fight... and then you..."

"...Killed her?" Monokuma pauses as if he were in deep thought. "...Hmmm, nope! You're totally off-base! Oogami-san died a pitiful death before even reaching the boss room!" He replies with a laugh. "Thankfully, that means I got off easy! No need to accept her challenges anymore! I was at a loss, y'know, 'cuz taking down a monster like that is no easy feat... even for **Monokuma the Great**... so whoever you are, Mr. or Ms. Villain, you have my **gratitude!** "

"G-gratitude?! What are you being so grateful for?! You sicken me! You're the **worst!** " Asahina shouts in anger.

"Ohoho, rather than directing your anger at me, you should funnel it into finding the culprit! After all... it's **you guys'** lives that's on the line here," Monokuma says with a sly smile. Releasing another one of his "Upupupu" laughs, he vanishes.

"Well, I can agree with him on that point. Oogami **was** the mastermind's puppet, after all," Togami comments.

Nepgear shoots Togami a look of disbelief. He was saying insensitive things again!

"H-how can you say that?!" Naegi tells him.

But Togami disregards his reaction. "I don't have time to bicker with you peons. The game's already begun. If you want someone to hate, hate whoever killed her. Our priority right now is finding the culprit. Now, the first thing we should do is decide who's responsible for watching over the crime scene."

As much of a heartless jerk Togami was being, he does have a point that they should move on with the investigation, so Nepgear could only sigh and let things flow as it is. (Watching the crime scene... so you assign one of us to watch over the area to prevent the evidence from being tampered with, right?)

 _'That's right. The one who committed the act could be among us, after all. That should be obvious enough in itself, Nepgear.'_

(U-um, yes... I know... but I was just wondering if there maybe there was already an assigned person every time this happens...)

 _'No, we usually pick the student who is the most convenient choice at the moment.'_

(Oh, I see...)

"...I'll do it..." Asahina says.

Nepgear and Naegi turn to look at her in concern. "Asahina-san?"

"Let me handle it. I'll be fine... I want to be here, with Sakura-chan..." Nepgear notices Asahina slightly waver at the mention of her friend's name. She feels herself sympathize with Asahina's pain. Seeing someone who was your close friend dead must be hard for her right now.

"All right then. Asahina is the first watchman. The second is..." Togami's eyes roam around the people in the room before settling upon one sole figure. "...You, Kirigiri."

Nepgear was brought out of her mourning monologue at Togami's cold gaze suddenly locked at her. "E-eh? M-me?"

"At your current state, there's nothing of worth that you can do. Be the good little amnesiac girl that you are and stand guard. That's an order," Togami states.

Order? What did he think she was, a dog? Fukawa may actually like his treatment, but that didn't mean he had to apply the same thing to her! "S-stand guard...?" Nepgear stutters out in surprise. She doesn't know how to handle being given a position like this so suddenly.

 _'So he wants me to stay out of his way... Hmph, I expected as much. ...Well, fine. I'm okay with it.'_

(E-eh? Really?)

 _'I've managed to examine Oogami-san's body beforehand anyway. And as long as we're within the crime scene, we'll still be able to make other observations around the area.'_

(Um, okay... if you say so, Kirigiri-san...)

And, well, realistically speaking, in their point of view, she did have amnesia, so that meant she would have no idea what to do with all the investigating and such.

Seeing that Kirigiri agreed with it, Nepgear faces Togami and gives a slight nod. "U-um, all right, I'll do it."

Togami gives a satisfied smirk at her response. "Then it's settled. Let's get started."

Just as Togami starts to move from his spot, Asahina speaks up. "Wait... There's something I have to say first..."

"And what might that be?" Togami asks in an exasperated tone.

"Hagakure, Togami, Fukawa... the three of you are not allowed in this room. You're the ones who killed Sakura-chan! I can't let any of you get anywhere near her!" Asahina says with a fierce glare.

"Shut your mouth, insolent fool," Togami responds in irritation. He's sounding like a high and mighty king or something... "My life is at risk. I have a **right** to investigate the scene." He does kind of have a point though.

But Asahina doesn't back down. "Say whatever you want... I'm not letting you murderers touch Sakura-chan."

Togami releases an annoyed sigh. "It seems we're at an impasse. Continuing this quarrel any longer is a waste of time. ...Fine then, I'll make a concession. Never mind all three. Just let me investigate." Hagakure lets out a "Whaaat?" in shock at his words. Togami merely glares at him. "That's not a problem, is it? It's not like you'd be of any help, anyway."

Uwah, just like what Nepgear would come to expect from Togami... no mercy with his words like Kirigiri!

 _'I'd prefer if you don't compare me to the likes of him.'_

(O-oh! I-I'm sorry! I-it just slipped out...!) Nepgear hears Kirigiri let out an unamused sigh in response.

Genocider Sho, on the other hand, just smirks. "Heh, cool with me. Investigation? Pah! Fabulously fantasizing about my White Knight is a **much** better use of my time!"

She certainly has her priorities straight...

"You don't have any compaints, do you, Hagakure?" Togami asks him with a tone of finality.

"W-well, if you insist... I guess I got no choice... Either way, i-it's not like I did anything..." Hagakure says, scratching at his hair nervously.

"Then it's decided."

"Hey, who gave you permission to decide anything?!" Asahina protests.

(Asahina-san is quite insistent...)

 _'While I understand her feelings, we can't afford to waste time. Accepting Togami-kun's proposal is the only way we can make any progress.'_

(Only way to make progress...)

Nepgear is suddenly reminded of how she herself was acting earlier. She had refused to do anything because she was scared, but it was only thanks to Kirigiri's words is that she finally mustered enough courage to do so...

"Please, Asahina-san," Nepgear tells her in an even tone, " **Think of this as for Oogami-san's sake**."

Asahina grows silent for a few seconds, contemplating her words. Then, she faces Togami, but the glare never leaves her expression. "...Fine. I'll let you investigate the room, Togami. But you **absolutely cannot** lay a finger on Sakura-chan."

"And why would I? I'm not putting my hands on that filthy thing," Togami retorts with disdain.

Goodness, this guy—!

"A-anyway! T-Togami-san! We should be focusing on the investigation, r-right?! We should get started on it and not wasting any time fighting with each other like this!" Nepgear had the need to quickly cut in, as Togami's scornful remarks were clearly worsening the situation as it already was and Asahina might just decide to retract her agreement.

Togami gives another "Hmph" in response, and proceeds to walk over and start to examine an area in the room, not even bothering to give her a reply. Nepgear releases a sigh containing both weariness and relief, as everyone starts to move and get started on investigating.

In accordance to the agreement, Hagakure and Genocider Sho left the room. Nepgear sweatdropped as she watched Genocider Sho practically run out of the room screaming with glee about how she was going to use this valuable time for fantasizing, which couldn't help but make Nepgear think it was better that they weren't around for the investigation after all. Kirigiri had agreed with her opinion, and told her that Hagakure had attempted to use his "divine fortune-telling powers" for an investigation once, but the sheer ridiculousness of his fortune had prompted them to kick him out of the room. Fukawa would either spend most of her time conked out on the floor or spouting gibberish as Genocider Sho; so either way they were useless for investigation, Kirigiri had bluntly stated.

So, that only left Togami and Naegi to do all the investigating. Nepgear and Asahina had positioned themselves near Oogami's body, while watching the two boys (bitterly glaring at Togami whenever he passed by their area in Asahina's case) go around and examine the room. Curiously, they'd bring out their ElectroiDs while doing so. Nepgear inquires about it to Kirigiri, who tells her that the ElectroiDs are capable of "loading evidence". Nepgear couldn't fully comprehend what she meant by that, but Kirigiri chose not to elaborate and simply told her that she would see for herself in the Class Trial. Though she was disappointed, Nepgear decided to push that matter aside as it'd do her no good to press out information from Kirigiri if she didn't want to.

The entire time, Nepgear felt herself observing Naegi's actions, which she eventually realized with embarrassment and repeatedly insisted inwardly to herself was because she had nothing else to do and he's the protagonist and everything he does is of importance and not because of any other explicit interest whatsoever. Kirigiri heard all of her thoughts and was not convinced.

Still, Kirigiri admitted that there was no harm in observing Naegi, since they were able to glean out some information from the examinations he was doing around the room. First off, from Naegi's conversation with Asahina, the **candy wrapper** that they had spotted near Oogami's shoe earlier was actually from a candy Asahina had given to Oogami in order to cheer her up after she stormed out of the infirmary. The candy was from the dormitory storeroom, and no one else other than Asahina could have possibly gotten it because she took the whole box as soon as the storeroom opened (Asahina-san must really love sweets, was what Nepgear had thought).

There were also these **red shards of glass** scattered behind Oogami's chair. Nepgear had failed to notice it because she had been far too busy freaking out while examining Oogami's body. Kirigiri had admitted to noticing it, but wanted her to focus on inspecting Oogami's corpse. Well, at least she was kind enough to let her concentrate, Nepgear thinks.

The shards used to be a glass bottle because there was the neck and bottom present. Beside it, there was **a small Monokuma figure** that holding a chess piece, so that meant it must have come from the cabinet nearby that also had Monokuma bottles lined up on it, each one holding different chess pieces. Kirigiri had noticed that there were two bottles missing from it, and connected it with the wounds on Oogami's head. She was **struck twice** , and there were **two missing bottles** , which meant that the murder weapon must have been the Monokuma bottles. However, there was only **one bottle that was found** , which led Nepgear to wonder where the other one went.

 _'...I have a theory I want to test out. Call Naegi-kun over.'_

(E-eh? Um, all right...)

Nepgear calls Naegi over to her side, and with an explanation from Kirigiri, Nepgear tells Naegi that she wants him to get a balance from the chemistry lab to test out this "hypothesis" of Kirigiri's. She had sent Naegi to do it, because Togami was around and would not want her going out to do any investigations and needed to "stay put like the good little amnesiac girl she was". Though Naegi was confused, he followed her request, and returned with the balance.

Following Kirigiri's instructions, the both of them gathered all the red shards from the Monokuma bottle and made comparisons with the weight. It turns out each Monokuma bottles weigh the same, but when they measured it with the shards, the shards had turned out to weigh a lot more, much to their surprise.

(H-how come this one is heavier...?! ...A-ah, could it be... these glass shards aren't from just one bottle...?)

Nepgear could feel Kirigiri grinning slightly. ' _Correct. Judging from the increased weight from the shards, it's safe to conclude that the second bottle that's missing is included here. But why there seemed to be only one bottle; or why both of the bottles ended up in the same location is something to be questioned.'_

After their discovery, Naegi also reported that when he went to the chemistry lab, he saw that there seemed to be a spillage of powder near the cabinets, with footprints that were left on top of it. This certainly got Kirigiri's interest, and would have wanted to see the scene for herself if only they hadn't been stationed to guard the crime scene.

A plastic container was also found on the floor near from what Nepgear could see in her position, Kirigiri said it was **a** **bottle of empty protein**. It must have come from Oogami, since it was she and Asahina who were fond of drinking protein and other body-enhancing nutrients, and they were the only ones who frequently went to the chemistry lab to go get some.

 _'Hmm... but what bothers me is the bottle's position.'_

(Huh? The position?)

 _'It seems to be placed on top of the glass shards. We know that the shards are from when Naegi-kun broke the window, but it doesn't make sense on how some of the shards managed to slip_ _ **underneath**_ _it. If it belonged to Oogami-san, then the shards should have ended up scattering on top of it instead.'_

(Ah... that's right... T-then how just did the shards end up going underneath it?)

 _'Unless..._ _ **it wasn't originally in the room to begin with**_ _...'_

(H-huh?! But it's supposed to be one of Oogami-san's possessions, right? How could...?)

A thought then comes into Nepgear's mind. The odd position of the bottle... the only explanation on how the shards ended up underneath it is if... it was placed on top of it? H-how did that come to be? And did someone do it?

 _'...We don't know the answer to that now. But this is something we should take note of.'_

Nepgear could feel her head start to spin a bit. So many mysteries to think about...

Then, Nepgear sees Naegi approach Oogami's body. This seems to be the only time that he came to examine her corpse; one would have expected the victim's state to be the first thing that should be looked at thoroughly, but then again, the Monokuma File did already provide the information...

Or perhaps... maybe he didn't want to inspect the body straight away?

Nepgear is aware that this isn't the first time he must've encountered a dead body, but she imagines it's still difficult for a normal human to get used to seeing corpses on a daily basis. Well, in Nepgear's case it certainly is. If it wasn't for Kirigiri's presence she would be running off and screaming to their room in hysteria right now.

She watches Naegi reluctantly lean down and examine Oogami's body in a similar manner she did a while ago. "The Monokuma File says that aside from the wound on her head, there aren't any other external wounds... but the blood from her mouth... did the blow to her head cause her to vomit blood?" Naegi wonders out loud.

"Yeah, right," Togami, who happened to be overhear it from his area, is the one who speaks up, in his usual condescending tone. "I will say, though, you've taken notice of something absolutely fascinating. Not bad."

"Fascinating...?" Naegi stares at Togami in confusion.

(U-uwah, it kind of seems that Togami-san's looking down on Naegi-san...) Nepgear started to think, before realizing that it was Togami they were talking about here; when **wasn't** he looking down on anyone?

But she had to admit Togami was being rather mean to Naegi at the moment, seeing as he was just dropping in a comment and not explaining the reason for it; leaving Naegi all confused. It's kind of rude. She could see Asahina reacting with obvious disapproval at his actions by briefly shooting Togami a glare.

 _'...Nepgear, I'd like you to give some information to Naegi-kun. Repeat after me.'_

Nepgear blinks at Kirigiri's words, before sensing that this must be the time for Kirigiri's exposition as Naegi's mentor.

"Oh, um, Naegi-ku—I mean, Naegi- **san**!" Gah, oh goodness she shouldn't screw this up—Naegi was giving her an odd look—! "Um... vomiting is one of the many symptoms that can occur from a concussion; but hae... u-uh... um...? A-ah, haematemesis—that is, the medical term for vomiting blood—usually happens when there is a problem in the upper gut. There is something called... 'subdural haematoma' to refer to bleeding from the brain, but it's of internal origin. That's why Oogami-san vomiting blood from the blow to her head isn't the case here."

Naegi's eyes widen at her words, seemingly awed at the information that came out from her. "Oh... really?"

Togami narrows his eyes at her. "For an amnesiac, you surprisingly know a lot of information."

"Oh, Togami-kun, Kirigiri-san told me that she's recovering bits of her memories as time passes by," Naegi explains to him.

"U-um, yes! I also manage to gain some information from the library," Nepgear adds nervously as a convenient excuse. She sees Togami's eyes narrow even further at the mention of the word "library"; making more drops of sweat appear in Nepgear's head as he was no doubt recalling the incident that had occurred when she visited the library. Thankfully, he eventually lets up on his dubious stare at her and faces away with another "Hmph" and goes back to his own investigation.

Nepgear releases a sigh at having been relieved from Togami's cold-eyed stare and continues to watch Naegi and Togami resume their respective inspections. Once Naegi was done looking over Oogami's body, he lastly heads over to the magazine rack, where there was a **bloodstain** in front of it. The only person where it must have originated from must be Oogami, but why was it so far away from Oogami's body? She sees Naegi pick up a magazine from the rack (it seemed to be flipped over, why was that?) and opens it. She hears him gasp from the contents.

"T-this is...!"

Alarmed, Nepgear and Asahina approach Naegi to see what got him so shocked. They look over his shoulder to see that in one of the magazine's pages was the word **"FUKAWA"** written in blood.

"W-why is Fukawa-san's name here...?" Nepgear mutters in disbelief.

"Is this... a dying message...?!" Naegi exclaims.

"So this means she's the killer... she **is** , isn't she?!" Asahina says with fury.

"Hmph, there you go again, mindlessly jumping to conclusions based on your own subjective opinion." Startled at Togami's voice, the three of them turn their faces around to see him standing behind. He must've wanted to take a look too, though Nepgear couldn't help but note how he was standing a few meters away from them; most likely to keep distance. Probably because he felt allergic standing near "commoners" like them.

Asahina glowers at Togami's presence. "But there's the evidence right there! How else can you explain it?!"

"That is exactly why one must thoroughly investigate to see whether or not the evidence is genuine. If you blindly accept everything that is presented to you, then you're no better than a rat that went for the cheese in a mousetrap." Togami seems to be fond of using expressions that compared people to animals, Nepgear thinks as she worryingly sees Asahina intensify her glare at him.

 _'While that was an inconsiderate way of putting it, I have to agree with him on that one. This kind of evidence seems far too obvious and conveniently placed. Since Oogami-san was the one who was inflicted with grievious wounds, it does make sense to think that this dying message came from her. However, the circumstances don't match.'_

(T-they don't? But the blood could have only come from Oogami-san...)

 _'Look at Oogami-san's fingers. Do any of them look stained with blood to you?'_

Nepgear glances at Oogami's body and sees that her fingers are completely clean.

(Ah...! Her fingers don't look like they've been dipped in blood...! So that's what you meant... We should inform the others about this...!)

"U-um, but Oogami-san's fingers seem clean... If she was the one who really wrote it, then shouldn't her fingers have traces of blood on them?" Nepgear says, voicing out her and Kirigiri's thoughts. Her statement causes their faces to contort into troubled expressions; for Naegi and Asahina at least. Togami looked indifferent as usual, though his face did scrunch up slightly as if he was contemplating about it.

"W-well, Togami-kun does have a point... we're not certain if this is legitimate evidence right now..." Naegi says as he places the magazine back in its original spot. "I'll talk to Fukawa-san about this and see if I can get any information from her."

Nepgear nods slightly to agree with Naegi. There was no one else better than to confirm this other than Fukawa herself... Though, the last time they had seen Fukawa, she had been as Genocider Sho... Well, hopefully by now, she had reverted back to normal self. That was what Naegi was going to check out, anyway.

The four of them finally disperse as Nepgear goes back to her spot (with Asahina angrily stomping all the way back to hers). Togami deems that there's nothing else in the room worth examining, so he leaves. Naegi briefly roams his eyes around to see if he had missed anything, but also sees that he's done all the investigating he could in the room. He faces the door and takes a step to leave, but suddenly stops and faces Nepgear.

"Um, Kirigiri-san?"

Nepgear blinks in surprise at being called. "O-oh, yes! What is it, Naegi-san?"

"I just wanted to see if you had any thoughts on this case so far," Naegi says.

Nepgear pauses for a moment, inwardly waiting for the response of the actual person whom the question was directed at. "...Well, uh, this case is certainly going to be a difficult one, since this is a **sealed room murder**."

"S-sealed room murder, huh... That kind of stuff usually happens in TV and manga all the time..." Naegi comments.

"Yeah, I agree," Nepgear replies, thinking the same way. These kind of situations with these level of drama are normally pulled off in fictitious settings... Then again, they were in a ga...

...Well, to put things simply, this was their reality now.

"...Oh! Um, while we're on the subject, would you like 'me' to go into a bit more detail about sealed room murders?"

Naegi nods. "Please. I'd appreciate that."

"Um, so... Sealed room murders can be, by and large, divided into four major categories. Category one: **a sealed room constructed on the outside after the crime has been committed** , where the culprit uses some sort of trick to seal the room. Category two: a **sealed room that already existed before the murder occurred** , where the culprit uses some tool or method to target the victim from outside the sealed room. ...However, this case probably doesn't fit that category... U-um, anyway, moving on, there's category three: **the culprit is inside the sealed room when the seal is broken** , where the culprit takes advantage of the confusion to slip into the crowd, acting like they showed up. Ah... then we have the fourth and final category: **it was never a sealed room to begin with**... in other words, the room has a secret passage or something in it for the culprit to escape... But, considering the situation we're in... it's highly unlikely." Nepgear pauses, letting the words sink in Naegi's mind. Clearing her throat, she adds, "...And that concludes 'my' lecture."

Naegi remains silent for a moment with a hand under his chin, digesting the information. "I see... so there are four major categories... But, what category do you think this case falls into, Kirigiri-san?"

Nepgear grows quiet for a few seconds, waiting for Kirigiri's response before speaking. "Um... At the moment, it's kind of hard to say..."

Naegi sighs in a disappointed manner. "Yeah, figures..." To Nepgear's amazement, he perks up with a small smile afterwards. "Well, guess that just means I'll have to focus even harder on my investigation then. **For Oogami-san's sake** , right?"

Nepgear feels her eyes slightly widening in recognition at those words. "A-ah, yes! ...Um, good luck on your investigation, Naegi-san!"

He gives her a small nod accompanied with a smile, then turns around and leaves the room. Nepgear watches him walk out, still feeling slightly amazed at him. He initially seemed to be downhearted at the lack of solid confirmation, but he immediately cheered up afterwards! She could even sense the determination brimming in his eyes, too. Such positive comeback! As expected of the protagonist!

Also... Nepgear remembers that he had used the very same words she spoke earlier—Kirigiri's words. It was Kirigiri who had told her those words earlier, and she merely repeated them to Asahina to convince her. For Naegi to also repeat them back... that means he must highly value Kirigiri's words, seeing as he went over to discuss her opinion. Nepgear wasn't surprised; even she viewed Kirigiri as a dependable person.

(I'm impressed, Kirigiri-san! You really do know a lot, despite your amnesia!) Nepgear can't help but remark.

 _'While it is true that I have lost a great amount of memories; the loss is directed at my identity.'_

(Your identity... Ah, right... You did say that initially, you didn't remember anything other than your name.)

 _'Though amnesia is capable of wiping out memories of events, the body's basic functions are difficult to remove completely from one's mind. Such actions have been deeply embedded within our minds that we perform them automatically. It is called as the "procedural memory". My knowledge of the world and any further knowledge that I have acquired—"semantic memory"—also remains intact, so I'm most likely suffering from retrograde amnesia.'_

('Retrograde amnesia'...?)

 _'It is a type of amnesia where one cannot remember any past events prior to the amnesia. All of the students, with you as the exception, have been affected with this, only that as I have mentioned before; mine is an extreme case as I am unable to recall anything involving my family or identity. With the memories that are slowly flowing into me, I am starting to get an idea of my talent. But as of the moment, I still haven't collected enough memories to narrow it down to one talent. Investigating is in itself a broad skill... For all I know, I could be a researcher or something related along that kind of job...'_

(...Well, I guess the only thing we can do in the meantime is to wait and see on what kind of information your memories unravel...)

 _'That's right... The only thing we can do for now is wait...'_

(Wait, huh... Because we're here to stand guard, we'll have to wait for Naegi-san and Togami-san to finish their investigations... Kirigiri-san, I know _—_ and I can kind of feel _—_ that you're someone who's really into investigating... aren't you a bit bothered by this?)

 _'I do admit that it is rather frustrating, yes. But it can't be helped, seeing as Togami-kun's got his eye on me. I submitted to his demand since I'd most likely end up wasting time trying to reason with him. If it's to make us proceed, then I'm willing to put aside my personal feelings in matters like these. For now, we'll leave the rest to Naegi-kun.'_

(R-right...)

 _'There's only a few things left to be looked at, anyway. The state of the chemistry laboratory, and questioning the other two people who were involved with Oogami-san. Once that's over and done with, it's only a matter of mulling over the information and connecting the events. Of course, that's what the Class Trial is for.'_

Nepgear gives another mental agreement, and eventually silence falls upon them as they wait for the time to pass by. Feeling rather awkward at the silence, Nepgear glances at Asahina who had been wordlessly staring at the floor with an angry frown for a while now.

"Asahina-san... are you okay?"

"Do I **look** okay?" Asahina snaps, as she raises her head irritably. An apologetic expression quickly overcomes her face when she sees Nepgear's startled look. She lowers her head in regret afterwards. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to snap like that. It's just that... with everything that's happened... I just feel terrible..." Her voice and shoulders started to shake, and she sounded like she was tearing up.

Nepgear feels her heart go out to Asahina. It must be a horrible feeling to see that your friend died, and that most of the people around you seems to be actually **glad** at her death.

"Asahina-san... I understand that it must be hard. I... I don't know why the others are hating on Oogami-san. I honestly think that Oogami-san is a good person. I thought she was kind of scary at first, but once I got to know her a bit, she actually turned out to be surprisingly gentle. I don't think she deserves all this hatred or fear that she's getting. I-I mean, she's really disciplined when it comes to her martial arts, and the way that she seems to carry this unwavering resolve is pretty cool, you know...?" Nepgear says in an attempt to comfort Asahina.

Ahh, goodness... Was she really getting through Asahina? She still looks sad _—_ She needs to say something to cheer her up...!

"A-and she makes really good tea!"

Goodness, that's what she follows it up with...?!

Nepgear bites her lip and turns her face away at Asahina, who continued to remain silent. Oh goodness, was it really appropriate of her to say stuff like that to Asahina? She only interacted with Oogami once; who was she to put her say on things? Nepgear fears that she might have just ended up offending Asahina instead _—_

Nepgear's distressful thoughts were interrupted when she hears Asahina give a low laugh. It sounded rather weak and hoarse, but she could sense the slight light-heartedness contained in it. Asahina faces Nepgear with a small smile. " **Unwavering resolve** , huh...? Haha... Thanks, Kirigiri-san... It's really reassuring to know that not everyone hates Sakura-chan... Hearing that from you really means a lot, so I appreciate it..."

Nepgear's spirits lift up at what appeared to be the success of her attempt at cheering her up. She returns a wider, relieved smile towards her. "I'm glad that I managed to make you feel a bit better."

 **"Oogami's Will" has been stored into your blade.**

(Wait, what...?)

Nepgear blinks momentarily in surprise at the sudden notification. Before she could ponder about it further, a familar chime sounds out from the speakers.

 **Diiiing dooong... diiing dooong...**

"Aww man, **you guys'** investigation was so dull I could hardly stay awake! Either way, y'all ready? A'ight kids, it's **Class Trial** time! Upupu, I'll be seeing you all in the usual place!"

Nepgear feels her chest constrict with anxiety, and clenches a hand over it.

This was going to be her first Class Trial... was she going to be okay?

* * *

 **I was going to include the Class Trial here, but I decided to save it for the next chapter instead so as to not overwhelm the reader with too much text and information. That, and laziness. *shot***

 **Anywaaaays... I'm admittedly not sure if some of the exposition was necessary, but I assumed that Kirigiri seems to be the type that gives proper explanations when they're due, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to throw in those science-y blah. I'm not an expert on science and I fail Biology forever, so if there's a mistake I'll gladly correct it.**

 **Oh, and if one notices, Nepgear often stammers during her explanations, since she's only reciting what Kirigiri is saying to her in her head, but she's not as well-versed in whatever topic Kirigiri's saying so it takes her a few seconds to process it then repeat it.**

 **And, because of my paranoia and college professors firmly drilling it into my mind, here are my sources:**

 **(Original author) Dr. Kim Tenny. Vomiting Blood (Haematemesis). Retrieved from: patient-dot-info-slash-health-vomiting-blood-haematemesis**

 **(Original author) Dr. Michelle Wright. Subdural Haematoma. Retrieved from: patient-dot-info-slash-subdural-haematoma-leaflet**

 **Retrograde amnesia. In the online website _The Human Memory_. human-memory-dot-net-slash-disorders-dot-html**


	6. Let The Class Trial Begin

**_Harmless Orange:_ Lol yeah, I know how most OC or insert stories I've read mostly try to stop any murders, so I tried to at least deviate from that. While I would have liked to make things different (and totally would've wanted Oogami to live), I figured it'd be predictable that Nepgear would end up saving anyone, and as I believe I have mentioned before; I would've wanted Nepgear to witness for herself the situation she's been landed in. xP Oh, and thanks, I do try to keep some level of realism to the characters. **

**_xCanaan:_ For your first review, ahaha, thank you very much! I was aiming for a completely humorous feel in the first chapter, probably because I had merely planned it as a one-shot back then. Recent chapters aren't that humorous anymore, since I felt that the constant comedy would feel out of place when there's been a murder, and this fic isn't completely a crack fic, so yeah. I'm glad you find Nepgear going through the Danganronpa procedures interesting since one of my concerns is that it would be deemed as rather boring. I figured that since the Conquest ending was the darkest ending that involved a lot of death for the normally light-hearted series of Neptunia, Nepgear encountering death would make her associate it with that ending. **

**_The sound of Death -Hope:_ Thanks, glad you're interested in the story!**

 ** _KuletXCore:_ Well, everyone has their own ways of discovering a series! And I am well-aware of how much Danganronpa memes or parodies are out there, so it's no wonder you stumbled upon one. I'm glad you liked the crossover! As for Nepgear and Kirigiri's situation... While I am tempted to reveal what I have planned, I like to maintain a spoiler-free policy, so I would encourage you to see for yourself, ahaha. **

**_ARSLOTHES:_ Thanks for your interest in the story!**

 **Riiiight, so this is so far the lengthiest chapter I have ever written. I hadn't planned it to get this long, but uh, just think of it as a belated Christmas and New Year bonus thing. I dunno if any of you guys will even bother to read the entire thing because of its length, so you're all free to read up to a certain point then save the rest for later or something. xP**

 **DISCLAIMER: Yeah... nope. Don't got nuthin'.**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 04: ALL ALL APOLOGIES**

 **\- CLASS TRIAL -**

 **(I'm sorry but I'm so confused)**

* * *

 **-DAYTIME-**

Asahina frowns at the monitor where Monokuma had said his announcement. "So it's already that time, huh... We should get going... ah, wait—" Asahina suddenly turns to face Nepgear. "Kirigiri-san, you don't remember where the **trial room** is, right? It's over at the first floor of the school zone. Come on, I can lead you there. Let's go together."

Nepgear blinks, snapping out of her inner worries. "Ah, thank you, Asahina-san."

The two girls head towards the door to exit, but before they leave, Asahina stops and faces Oogami's dead body still seated on the chair. "We're going now, Sakura-chan."

Nepgear watches Asahina give her farewell. Asahina is determined for this, Nepgear concludes. She clenches the fist she still has on her chest tighter—a nervous habit of hers that she could never shake away. She always places a hand close to her heart in hopes of calming down the sudden nerves that would burst out of her, but for now she wills herself the necessary resolve to face the ordeal that was going to happen.

The two of them head down to the first floor and eventually come upon a bright red door in the corner of the hallway. Asahina seemed to have a grim expression on her face as she grabbed the handle to the door like she was all too used to this kind of event, and opens the door and heads inside with Nepgear following.

They entered what it seemed to be was a foyer, and Nepgear noticed how worn out the area looked compared to the neater structure of the school building; with the decaying walls and the rusty looking elevator up ahead.

Hagakure, Fukawa (Oh, it looks like she managed to turn back after all), and Togami were already present in the room, and eventually Naegi comes rushing from the door a few minutes later. It appeared that he really did have a knack for showing up last, Nepgear absently thought.

Once everyone was there, they all board the elevator. The elevator ride was a silent one, aside from the slight creaks the elevator made every once in a while. It almost made Nepgear paranoid that it was suddenly going to break and fall down, but the calmness coming from Kirigiri assured her that nothing of that sort ever happened.

That paranoid thought aside... Nepgear could sense this thick tension in the air, the anger and frustration radiating off from Asahina most likely adding to the dreary atmosphere. In such a small space such as this all of these negative emotions accumulated and made it suffocating to be in.

Not to mention that Nepgear couldn't stop this dread that was welling up within her. Something about this elevator ride gave off this feeling of finality... if she had to use a morbid term for it, it'd be like as if they were criminals going to their death sentence...

Then again, they were going on a trial, were they not? This is the moment where they will be judged... with this stage set by a merciless producer... this is where life and death mix... the outcome of their fates so uncertain... Will it be life? That they would be able to escape with their lives to live another day... Or will it be death? Where they will have to face execut—

—Wait a minute.

Nepgear shook her head.

She went off on some deep monologue back there. She didn't know what possessed her to suddenly make her ramble off something so seriously like that. The oppressive atmosphere around here must be making her want to monologue in an ominous manner. Freaky.

Nepgear stiffens in place as the elevator finally came to a stop.

This was it.

Her first Class Trial.

Nepgear's other hand grips the fist that was still clenched on her chest to contain her trembling. She closes her eyes for a brief second, hands clutched on her chest as if to pray to the True Goddess that she hopes she won't screw this up. She opens her eyes, takes a deep breath as the elevator doors open, then takes a step forward—

* * *

 **PRETRIAL**

 **\- ElectroiD**

 **\- Skills**

 **\- Finish Preparations**

(Uhh... what...?)

Nepgear blinked at the frozen space and words flashing in front of her.

 _ **It has been a long time, Nepgear.**_

Nepgear gasped. **The self-aware tutorial?!**

 _ **I'm sure you're questioning my presence right now. But, you see, tutorials will always be an omnipresent part of your life, Nepgear. It is in our nature to appear when the situation calls it and mock—er, provide you with helpful information.**_

"E-eehh...?"

 _ **It's best if you don't think too much about it.**_

 _ **Anyway, to explain, what you see before you are the Pretrial preparations. Before you dive in headfirst into the trial, it's only proper that you make sure that you're set and ready for it. It's your lives at stake here.**_

"O-oh, I see..."

Well, that certainly made sense. The last thing that Nepgear would want is for her to miss or forget any crucial detail that could help her with the trial.

 _ **You can check the ElectroiD to review your evidence...**_

Nepgear selects the "ElectroiD" option and sees the Monokuma File 4. She couldn't find anything else. It seemed to be the only thing available.

 _ **...But, so far, that is the only notable evidence that has been recorded into your ElectroiD. Too bad.**_

Nepgear closes the ElectroiD window, feeling chagrined. Okay, never mind that then.

"What's this 'Skill' option...?"

 **\- Total Doormat**

 **Willingly submits to any kind of testimony or argument. Incapable of making any solid argument. Influence: -50%**

 **\- Escapism**

 **Will be in a constant state of denial. Does not acknowledge reality. Influence: -30%**

 **\- Hypocrite**

 **Anything stated is not the truth or has a lie attached. Completely unreliable. Influence: -100%**

 **\- Not Worth It**

 **Will not be worth paying attention to. Will not be given the time of day. Influence: -0%**

 **\- Brutal Questioner**

 **Will ask without mercy. Higher chances of hurting people's feelings or damaging esteems. Influence: -10%**

 _ **These here are the affinities that you have gained so far throughout the ga—journey. You can equip yourself with any of these affinities that can help you influence the trial.**_

At first, Nepgear was excited that for once her affinities were finally capable of being used in actual gameplay—uh, capable of being used at all.

Then she read over her apparent skill list and found that pretty much all of them were composed of negative effects. Nepgear was not amused.

In other words, they were completely useless! How the goodness does a negative zero come to be in the first place, anyway?!

Since none of these affinities brought her any benefit, then what was the point?!

Feeling incredibly tired, Nepgear decides she might as well get this over with. The **"Brutal Questioner"** affinity seemed to be the least useless one, so Nepgear decided to pick that and quickly hit the " **Finish Preparations** " option.

 _ **I wish you the best of luck!**_

No kidding.

 _'...Do I even want to know?'_

(...No, Kirigiri-san, you wouldn't want to...)

Nepgear releases a weary sigh. The Class Trial hadn't even started yet, and already she felt so drained...

* * *

The moment Nepgear had stepped foot into the trial room, everything finally went back to reality. Behind them, Nepgear heard the elevator door close shut with a click to indicate that it had been locked. Wah, what a reminder that there was no escape from this...

The trial room looked like it came out of an Egyptian coliseum with all the murals decorated on the walls. Kirigiri informed Nepgear that the design was intentional, and Monokuma likes to switch to different designs for every new trial. Nepgear had no idea what an Egyptian coliseum had to do with their current trial, but she supposed it was useless to try to comprehend Monokuma's design plans since he was a homicidal robot bear hell-bent on making their lives miserable. A **really** well-structured homicidal robot bear that she **still** wants to dismantle, she might add.

According to Kirigiri, those stands that formed a circle in the center of the room was where they were supposed to stay in. Each of them have their names assigned to it, so Nepgear walked over to the stand where Kirigiri's name was placed at. She sees that there was a high chair in the very front, where Monokuma was seated comfortably. Wait, so while Monokuma gets a seat to himself, they're supposed to stand here for a trial that could possibly take hours to finish?! This was **torture!**

Nepgear had also noticed that there were these stands with pictures of faces present that seemed to be crossed out with what it seemed to be... blood? (It was pink, so Nepgear assumed so). Kirigiri told her that those were the pictures of the dead students, which Monokuma happily places "to at least let the dead participate too", when in actuality to serve as a painful remembrance to who had already departed. Psychological torment... this bear was ruthless.

To her left, Nepgear saw a picture of what it seemed to be a guy with a huge pompadour (what is it with the guys and their hair here, seriously), while her other side was where Oogami would have been had she been alive; judging by her already placed dead-picture-stand. Nepgear found herself mildly disturbed at this.

"All right, let's get this party started!" Monokuma announces cheerfully. Words flashed on the monitors above them.

 **COURT IS NOW IN**

 **SESSION!**

"Leeessee... Where should we begin?" Monokuma says thoughtfully.

"Obviously, the first and foremost priority is to find out who the killer is," Togami states.

Asahina narrows her eyes at him. "And I **still** say that you had something to do with Sakura-chan's death. You, Fukawa, or Hagakure! You all hated Sakura-chan!"

"Hmph. Such nonsense."

"I-I had nothing to do with it..."

"Y-y-yeah, dude! I-I-I wouldn't kill anyone, dude!"

Nepgear notices how stuttery and panicked Hagakure was. She could feel Kirigiri's suspiciousness rising again, and out of curiosity she finds herself asking, "Hagakure-san, you seem to be extremely nervous. Is something bothering you?"

She sees Hagakure's body stiffen. "W-wha? M-me? Nervous? N-nah, I-I'm totally being normal, dude!"

His behavior wasn't exactly convincing. The stares of the other students were certainly saying so. Kirigiri, especially, from what her blank stare Nepgear could sense from within her.

"...You don't happen to be hiding something, are you?"

"W-w-what?! H-h-hiding something?! N-n-no way!" Hagakure raises a finger towards her with a frown. "H-hey! Why're you questioning me like that all of a sudden, anyway?! Are you saying I'm suspicious?!"

"I'd say you're plenty suspicious-looking enough in general to begin with..." Fukawa remarks in an off-hand manner.

"Nobody asked for your opinion!" is what Hagakure could be heard retorting with.

Nepgear feels the nervousness consume her again, as Hagakure and the other students look at her with questioning stares once that piece of banter was over with. She tries to stumble out an explanation, as she realizes that she had ended up blurting out those questions that were supposed to be only thoughts swimming in her head. "E-ehm, uhm... that is, I..."

 _'...When suspects are being questioned, policemen observe their behavior or patterns of speech to detect any kind of deception. Facial expressions and body language usually clue in a person to whether or not their words and actions match.'_

(Ah, Kirigiri-san...!)

Nepgear's eyes widen for a few seconds before her brain finally caught up with what Kirigiri said.

"A-ah, um, you know...! Like, when there's a suspect, people usually look at their expressions and actions to see if they're guilty, so... I just couldn't help but act on it..."

"Oh, you mean like what they do on TV, right?" Asahina comments.

Nepgear nods. "Y-yeah..."

Inwardly, she sighs in relief as her body relaxes from her previous nervous stance. She honestly didn't know what to say back there; Kirigiri had saved her again.

(Thank you, Kirigiri-san...!)

 _'It's fine. His actions were something that I had taken notice of, and you just happened to call out on it. Not all of nervous behavior are necessarily associated with guilt; but Hagakure-kun had been acccused in another case before, and he did not act as anxious as he is now. He looks obviously guilty of something, but it's still too early to jump to conclusions right now.'_

After listening to Kirigiri's explanation, Nepgear snaps back to the situation at hand where Hagakure was still looking displeased at her accusation towards him.

"Yeah, w-well, just 'cause I'm acting a bit jittery today doesn't automatically make me guilty!"

"Actually, Hagakure-kun... There is something I'd been meaning to ask you..." Naegi interrupts. "While we were talking earlier, you dropped a small piece of paper." Naegi holds out his ElectroiD, that had a picture of a familiar item on it. "With **red polka dots**..."

Nepgear sees that the same picture from Naegi's ElectroiD is also shown on the monitors above. Ohh, was it meant to enlarge the images that came from the ElectroiD? This must be what Kirigiri meant by when evidences could be loaded into the ElectroiD. She feels a slight hum of agreement come from within her, confirming Kirigiri's emotions.

 _'The ElectroiD, when it comes to storing evidence; can only hold evidence the user has seen. Data is transferrable to other ElectroiDs, though only for those who are willing to share the hold of evidence.'_

(I see... It's quite a convenient system!)

Back at the current situation, Hagakure could be seen paling, while Asahina stares at the picture in a thoughtful manner. "Red polka dots...?" Realization comes upon her as she glares at Hagakure. "Hey, that's just like the same kind of candy I gave to Sakura-chan!"

"E-eh, u-um... well..." Hagakure was starting to sweat.

"Asahina-san told me that as soon as the storeroom opened, she took the entire box with that kind of candy in it back to her room. No one else should have managed to get any of it," Naegi starts to say, and Asahina gives a fierce nod to show her agreement. "So how did you manage to get some, Hagakure-kun?"

"He could have only gotten it from Sakura-chan!" Asahina adds.

"Uhh... W-well, it's true that Ogre gave it to me... B-but that happened waaayy back! It's got nothing to do with this!" Hagakure responds nervously.

"You said that the last time you saw Oogami-san was when we were in the infirmary, right?" Naegi asks.

"S-sooo, she gave it to me before then, dude..." Hagakure awkwardly replies.

Naegi shakes his head. "No, that's not possible, Hagakure-kun. Asahina-san didn't give Oogami-san any of her candy **after they left the infirmary**."

"W-well, um, uh..." Unable to form anymore responses, Hagakure grows quiet, sweating even more at the stares (glare from Asahina) everyone was giving him as he clutches his hair. "Ngggh, o-okay! Yeah, I admit it, all right?! Me and Ogre met in the rec room! B-but that's all I did, dude! I-I didn't do anything to her! Please, believe me!"

"How can you **not** sound guilty after revealing that?" Fukawa snarks.

"H-hey, why're you calling me guilty...?! If anything, **you're** clearly the guilty one!" Hagakure retorts.

"W-what?" Fukawa's expression twists into that of shock.

"Yeah, yeah! I know you're the culprit! I even got the proof for it! Her **shining** **message** , dude!" Hagakure declares.

"Shining...? Was there anything that had shone in the evidence earlier?" Nepgear wonders.

 _'I believe he means "dying message".'_

(Ah...) "Don't you mean **'dying message'** , Hagakure-san?"

"Yeah! There was a **bloody message** left at the scene!" Okay, so he can call it whatever he wants then... "It said **'FUKAWA'**! That's the biggest piece of proof you've got right there, dude!"

"Yeah, I did remember seeing that message too..." Asahina adds.

"W-what are you talking about?! I-I didn't do it!" Fukawa protests.

"How long are you gonna keep denying it?!" Hagakure tells her in an accusing tone.

Nepgear senses that something doesn't feel right. Before she realizes it, her mouth has started to move. "The message...? But, Hagakure-san... how could you have seen it **when you weren't there?** "

Hagakure pauses. "Huh...?"

Naegi's eyes widen in realization. "...That's right! Hagakure-kun, I found that message in a magazine rack during the investigation. But by that time, you and Fukawa-san had already left the room. Asahina-san wouldn't let you participate in the investigation, so there was no chance you could've seen it!"

Hagakure balks. " **Bwaaah!** "

 _'I think it should be obvious by now on how that "evidence" came to be.'_

(...? ...Ah, are you saying that Hagakure-san was the one who...)

 _'He knows about a piece of evidence he never managed to see, so the only conclusion we can draw out is that he was the one who placed it there himself.'_

Though Nepgear was saddened over this information (and a bit disappointed in Hagakure, she admits), she knows she has to make it known to everyone.

"W-what's the big deal about when or where I saw it, anyway?! All that matters is that the **flying sausage** was there, and 'Kawa-chi was the one who did it!" Hagakure insists.

...Yeah, Nepgear needed to say something now. His phrasing is getting worse by the minute. "Hagakure-san... please be honest with us. That **'dying message'** was planted there by you, wasn't it?"

Nepgear sees Fukawa scowl, not taking the knowledge of having been framed well. She had her hands raised in that "I want to strangle you" gesture she remember she used on her at the library and could actually hear her gritting her teeth from this distance. "W-wait, so you **framed** me...?!"

"W-wha... uh... H-how d'ya know it was me who did it, huh?! Where's your proof?!" Hagakure demands.

 _'You do remember that_ _ **particular evidence**_ _, right? The others who had been with you there should have known about this too.'_

Nepgear recalls the investigation and remembers the detail that Kirigiri had pointed out that time.

(Ah, I see!)

"There was Oogami-san's fingers, right?" Nepgear starts to say.

Hagakure blinks back at her. "Huh? Her fingers?"

Naegi quickly catches on. "Oh, right! You mentioned that they were **clean!** "

Asahina, on the other hand, is rather slow on the uptake. "Clean...?"

"If Oogami-san's fingers were clean, then she couldn't have possibly written the dying message with her blood!" Naegi clarifies.

Asahina continues to look puzzled for a few seconds before she finally gets it, and pats a fist to her palm. "Oh, yeah! That makes sense!"

" **Ngaaaaaaah!** " Hagakure fists his hair in defeat.

"Hagakure-kun... why would you plant fake evidence?" Naegi asks.

"W-well, that's 'cause..." Hagakure looked reluctant to speak, but eventually bursts out in a horrified tone, " **I killed Ogre!** "

Nepgear gasps. (H-he actually confessed to it?!)

Hagakure then goes on to tell his "final words" and explains that he had gone into the rec room before noon and met up with Oogami who gave him the candy to get him to calm down a bit. While waiting for the others, he started to hear Oogami muttering "that this would be the end" to herself, making him panic and think she was going to kill him right then and there, so he smashed her with one of the Monokuma bottles on the head. Not wanting to be found guilty, while Oogami had gone limp he grabbed a magazine in the racks and wrote Fukawa's name on it before running off. Fukawa wasn't entirely amused to hear that bit, and declared that there was "a special circle in hell" for people like him.

After hearing Hagakure's story, all Nepgear could do was gape at him in disbelief. He acted too rashly! Who hits people over the head with a bottle made out of glass over a simple phrase?! Nepgear thinks that Hagakure's too quick to come into his own conclusions without realizing how farfetched they sounded. Declaring Asahina as dead over a cut and that spirits were coming to save them came to mind.

In Hagakure's defense, though, he did sound genuinely regretful for his actions. Kirigiri wasn't kidding when she said that a strong amount of paranoia was enough to drive a person to kill someone.

But, no matter how sorry he felt about it, Asahina wasn't happy with his words at all. "You're the **worst!** How could you do such a horrible thing to Sakura-chan?! She wasn't even doing anything to you!"

"H-he's already confessed to being the killer! I say we hurry up and execute him already!" Fukawa yells.

Nepgear wonders. Hagakure did admit to killing Oogami... but was this really it? Things seemed to have come to a fast conclusion in this case...

 _'No, it's not over yet. There are still far too many details that haven't been glossed over in this trial.'_

(That's true...)

There were still some evidence left that hadn't been explained. It would seem to be too soon to end the trial right here.

Naegi must have been thinking so too, as he interjects with, "Wait a minute. I don't think everything's over just yet. I want to ask... Hagakure-kun, if you wanted to shift the suspicion to Fukawa-san, then why did you hide the magazine? That would have made it more difficult for us to discover the evidence."

 _'Hm, so he noticed it as well.'_

"Uh... actually... I didn't hide it... I placed it at the table, dude..." Hagakure replies.

This makes Naegi react with surprise. "Eh? Then, if you weren't the one who hid it, then..."

"Obviously this means someone else who came into the rec room at the time of the murder was the one who placed it back." And, in typical Togami fashion, Togami went ahead and finished Naegi's sentence instead.

Still, it looks like Togami had finally participated in the discussion! He had been remaining quiet until now, observing their debate with a look that seemed to say "let the idiots talk over things first".

"Someone... else? Then who?" Asahina asks.

"I'd say it'd have to be someone who would be **inconvenienced** if it were discovered..." Togami says in an ambiguous tone.

"'Someone who would be inconvenienced'..." Naegi repeats slowly, as he realizes the implications and turns his gaze toward the girl biting her nails nervously. "...That would have to be Fukawa-san, wouldn't it?"

Everyone's stares turn toward Fukawa, who cowers lightly under all the gazes. "W-what? W-why would I go there? I-in the first place, none of this even matters! We know who the killer is already! He already confessed to doing it!"

"It's true! I did it! I killed Ogre!" Hagakure wails loudly.

"While Hagakure-kun did strike Oogami-san with the bottle, there's evidence to show that's not where the case ends." Naegi turns to Nepgear with an expectant look. "Isn't that right, Kirigiri-san?"

Nepgear jumps at the sudden attention that's been placed unto her.

(W-w-wait! W-why is he directing the case at me so suddenly?!)

Mentally panicking, Nepgear finds herself drawing a blank from the nervousness and pressure and oh goodness Naegi-san's expecting it from her—!

 _'The bottles, Nepgear.'_ Kirigiri tells her calmly.

(H-huh? Bottles... oh!)

Ah, that experiment Kirigiri had made them do! They weighed the glass shards onto the balance and found out how it seemed to measure the weight of **two** bottles, not one!

"A-ah, um, you see... we measured the shards of glass from the broken Monokuma bottle, and noticed that it actually weighed a lot more than a single Monokuma bottle... S-so, that means there were actually two bottles that had ended up being used..." Nepgear starts to explain.

"H-huh? Two?" Hagakure exclaims.

 _'Don't forget the Monokuma File 4 even shows this.'_

"O-oh, and I checked Oogami-san's body and saw that there were two bumps on her head... which meant that she was struck on the head twice. The Monokuma File even says so..." Nepgear adds.

"So says the woman who makes a habit out of touching every corpse she comes across. I have no reason to doubt her," Togami remarks smugly.

(H-he didn't have to point that out...! It was really uncomfortable...!) Nepgear inwardly wails, remembering the hand that held small traces of blood on her fingers. And she never even got the chance to wash it off, either...!

(—Ah, wait, Kirigiri-san... does this mean... you've done this before?) Her mind catches on Togami's comment.

 _'...I have examined the previous students' corpses before.'_

(E-ehh...)

 _'They were all out of necessity. You can't expect to determine the full cause of a victim's death without thoroughly examining their body.'_

(O-oh, yes... that is true... I-I'm amazed, Kirigiri-san... You can touch people's corpses without any fear at all...)

 _'...It seems that... I have had experiences with touching corpses before...'_ Kirigiri says, trailing off thoughtfully.

(E-eh? Really...?)

Nepgear didn't have much of a chance to talk about it further, though, as Fukawa was twitching over the accusation towards her.

"H-how do you know for sure that I was the one who did it?!"

"Fukawa-san, you **did** say that you didn't go when I questioned you earlier... but Hagakure-kun already confessed to his actions... so that only leaves you as the other likely suspect, since you **are** the only one who would be affected by the evidence he planted," Naegi says. "...Unless, Togami—"

"Never." Uwah, that got shot down pretty quickly. Fukawa could be seen deflating at not even the slightest concern Togami had.

"Y-yeah, I thought as much..." Naegi scratches his cheek with a visible sweatdrop from his head at Togami's straightforward response.

"I said I didn't go, and that's final," Togami states. "Now, Fukawa. Stop wasting my time. Tell us the truth."

Seeing that it was her beloved Byakuya-sama telling her to speak, Fukawa finally relents and explains her side of the story with what had occurred with Oogami.

She admits that she did end up deciding to go meet up with Oogami, since she was terrified of what Oogami would do to her if she didn't. She had apparently gone to the rec room minutes after Hagakure left; so when she had (reluctantly) went inside, she freaked out at the state Oogami was in, and was greatly horrified to see the magazine with her name on it. She went to stuff it into the rack to hide the evidence, but she did it in such a panicked rush that it ended up being placed upside down. It was then that she heard "the sound of a snarling beast" and had turned around to see Oogami apparently "glaring at her", and fainted right on the spot (whether it was from the blood from Oogami or from the fear, Nepgear couldn't tell).

Fukawa couldn't say anymore, since the next part of events was experienced by " **her** "... which could have only been Genocider Sho. It was at that very moment, through a timely coincidence, is when Fukawa sneezed, making her revert into the cackling serial killer with ridiculously large tongue.

"Yaahoooo! I've made my entrance! When my behind and Byakuya-sama's behind collide, we'll reach new heights!"

(Uh...) Genocider Sho was being so... Genocider Sho that Nepgear didn't know how to react.

"Do not speak unless spoken to," Togami says with an air of indifference as if he was all too used to this, "Did you kill Oogami Sakura?"

Genocider Sho then proceeded to rapidly narrate the events, though she didn't know what exactly happened because she and "Miss Gloomy" don't share the same memories; all she knew that she was "catching some primo Zs" only to feel that someone was shaking her. Thinking it was "her prince", she opened her eyes only to come face to face with the most terrifying being her eyes laid on, and promptly whacked Oogami with a nearby bottle before running off. Though her actions were appalling, Nepgear had to admit that only Oogami could be the one to strike fear into a serial killer.

"Sakura-chan was just concerned about you... and yet... How awful!" Asahina tells her with a disapproving glare.

" **She's** the frickin' awful one! Thanks to her, I killed my first non-man hunk!" Genocider Sho retorts.

Ah, it looks like her priorities are on a vastly different level again, Nepgear thinks with a sweatdrop.

Genocider Sho then admitted to getting rid of some of the evidence, since if she had to go down, she wanted to do it by "riding her White Knight's corpse" and not because of "killing some chick". Togami wasn't too thrilled with the idea, and told her she should die a meaningless death by herself.

Hagakure, on the other hand, was relieved that he wasn't the one who killed Oogami after all; insensitively saying it was "great news", seemingly not noticing Asahina's glare at him for that comment, and declares the case as solved.

"Eh? Is that really it?" Nepgear wonders.

 _'As resilient Oogami-san may be, she_ _ **was**_ _struck on the head twice consecutively... However...'_

"No, there is more," Togami says, almost as if voicing out her and Kirigiri's thoughts. "There was Hagakure's attack, and Fukawa's attack... But it doesn't end there."

"It... doesn't?" Naegi asks, suprised.

"Fukawa stated that 'she killed Oogami by the magazine rack'... however, this clearly shows a **contradiction** in the scene," Togami says. "By the time we had found her corpse, she was seated on the chair. If Fukawa claims to have killed Oogami on that very spot, then her corpse should have remained there."

"Then... was 'Kawa-chi lying?" Hagakure asks, scratching at his head in confusion.

"No, there was no mistaking that Fukawa attacked Oogami by the magazine rack. The **bloodstain** in front of it is proof of that," Togami replies, showing the picture of the scene using his ElectroiD.

"So... did she move the body, dude?"

"Whoa whoa whoa! Hold your horses! I can't carry anything than these Genoscissors!" Genocider Sho cuts in, brandishing said scissors in her hands. "'Sides, there's no effin' way I coulda moved that monstrous mass o' muscle!"

Hagakure looked even more confused. "Uh... then what's going on?"

"Obviously, there is more to this case than it meets the eye," Togami tells him.

 _'I agree. There's still the biggest question we haven't solved yet: on how the sealed room was constructed.'_

(Ah, that's right... just like what we had talked with Naegi-san a while ago...)

 _'Hagakure-kun and Fukawa-san, where, aside from tampering the evidence; came and left the room without making any further alterations to the scene to have created the sealed room.'_

(Then... Togami-san?)

 _'I have no doubts about Togami-kun's testimony as there was nothing in the evidence that indicated that he entered the room. ...For now, it looks like we'll have to focus on another possibility... One that lies within Oogami-san herself.'_

(Herself...?)

 _'Aside from the wounds on her head, there is still the concerning issue of the_ _ **blood that she vomited from her mouth**_ _... I suspect it's highly related to her cause of death.'_

(Ah, that's right!)

"Um..." Nepgear speaks up, effectively gaining the others' attention. "If Hagakure-san or Fukawa-san weren't the ones who... ended her life, then... Maybe there's another cause? There is the blood that she vomited from her mouth..."

She sees Togami smirk. "Hm, so your mind has finally grasped that possibility."

(Eh? Why does it feel like he's insulting me somehow...?)

"Huh? You mean she didn't cough up blood 'cause of the smacks to her head?" Hagakure asks in confusion.

"No, vomiting blood is because of internal damage..." Nepgear replies, remembering the explanation Kirigiri gave her.

"That's right. Haematemesis, correct?" Togami confirms with that usual smug smile plastered on his face. "If Oogami didn't die from the physical damage inflicted upon her... Then the other cause must be internal... like **poisoning**..."

"So you're saying... Oogami-san was murdered by poisoning?" Naegi asks.

"Precisely! And don't even think about questioning it. After all, **I'm** the one who came up with that conclusion," Togami says in a superior tone, making Genocider Sho squeal at how "hawt" he was. (Uh, okay...?)

"...And how **did** you come to that conclusion?" Asahina asks him.

"What, don't believe it? Then allow me to explain just how the culprit got Oogami to take the poison," Togami starts. "The key to this mystery lay in the chemistry lab. There is a large cabinet in which a plethora of chemicals and reagents are stored. I found **this** bottle there." Togami brings out a small red bottle from his pocket with a hazardous skull symbol on the label.

"I-is that... poison?!" Hagakure asks fearfully.

"It should be interesting to note just **where** I found this. As you know, the cabinets in the chemistry laboratory are divided into three sections," Togami starts to say, then immediately turns to Naegi. "Tell them, Naegi. You had been present in the room as well."

Nepgear gaped. Did he just... shove the responsibility of explaining towards Naegi?

Naegi blinks in surprise, before starting to explain as if all too disturbingly used to this. "Oh! Uh... The three cabinets are labeled A, B, and C respectively. Cabinet A contains nutrients; Cabinet B contains reagents, while Cabinet C contains poisons and other dangerous chemicals."

"W-wait a minute...! S-so they just leave poison out in the open like that?!" Nepgear exclaims in horror.

Naegi scratches his cheek, understanding her disbelief. "W-well, yeah..."

"If your empty mind hasn't fully comprehended the situation as of yet... Need I remind you that we are participating in a killing game?" Togami tells her in a condescending tone.

"I placed those delightfully hazardous poison for your convenience! It ensures a happy, satisfactory experience in the killing life and encourages **you bastards'** creative murdering juices to flow beyond the physical butchering! I know, I'm such a generous soul, amirite?" Monokuma remarks proudly.

"I... I don't think that's something worth being happy about..." Nepgear says weakly.

"Then again, your lack of awareness is understandable, considering you're an amnesiac," Togami adds snidely.

"...Urk..." Nepgear bows her head slightly, feeling a mixture of offense (Because she's not really an amnesiac!) and humiliation (She should've already gotten the idea of how twisted this world was...) as she hears Genocider Sho's snickers.

 _'Don't let them get to you. That's just the way they are.'_

(Y-yeah...) Kirigiri's words do give her some comfort.

"A-anyway! We were talking about the cabinets in the chemical lab, right?" Naegi cuts in, getting back to the topic at hand. Nepgear can't help but feel a small wave of gratitude towards him for directing the attention away from her. "So, Togami-kun, you were getting to the point of where you found that bottle... Wasn't it that it was placed in **Cabinet A**?"

"Hm, I see you remembered it correctly. Still, it's strange, isn't it? About how a bottle of poison could have made its way into the cabinet filled with nutrients?" Togami questions. "This is a byproduct of the culprit switching things around. I suppose it's better if I demonstrate it instead."

Togami then raised the bottle to his mouth and actually **drank** it. The rest of the students looked on with horror, Genocider Sho screeching all the while.

Was this it?! Had Togami gone suicidal?!

 _'Calm down. He would not have willingly done that with no reason. ...And look, he seems to be fine.'_

Nepgear stares at Togami with a bewildered look on her face, who had finished drinking from the bottle and seems to not be dropping dead at the moment. (E-eh? A-ah, you're right...)

"B-Byakuya-sama, quick! Spit it out! A-ah, I don't mind if you spit it all over me—" Togami promptly silences Genocider Sho with a "Shut up".

"E-eh?! Togami-chi is still alive?!" Hagakure exclaims.

 _'Nepgear, I want to test it out myself. Tell Togami-kun to hand it over.'_

(E-eeeh!? B-but...!?)

 _'I don't think there's any need for you to be worried, seeing how Togami-kun was unaffected by it. So, most likely, you should be fine too.'_

('M-m-most likely'...!?)

Though incredibly reluctant to do so, Nepgear trusted Kirigiri's judgment and asks Togami that she wants to look at the bottle too. He tosses the bottle towards her direction, leaving her to scramble her hands clumsily in an attempt to catch it. After a few seconds of hesitation, an urging from Kirigiri let her tip the bottle down and let some powder fall on to her finger, then warily puts it to her tongue. She grimaces at the chemical-like taste of the powder and resists the urge to spit it out right then and there.

 _'This is no poison. It's_ _ **protein powder**_ _. And of terrible quality, at that. The labels in the chemistry laboratory are stated to all be of high quality protein, but the taste proves otherwise. Either the academy isn't giving the proper quality of nutrients to the students or Monokuma decided to mess with them.'_ Kirigiri explains in an unamused tone.

While Nepgear was relieved that she didn't drink poison after all (since there was no Detoxin bottle in sight), she couldn't help but wonder what exactly about this terrible tasting powder that Asahina and Oogami liked; perhaps based on Kirigiri's words the two were just willing to accept protein of any quality?

Trying to twist her expression back to normal, Nepgear looks up from the bottle and back to the rest of the students who were looking at her with concerned expressions. "This isn't poison... It's **protein**..."

"That's right. Now, the question I want to ask is: where did the poison that should have been in that bottle end up in?" Togami questions.

While Togami was talking, Nepgear decided to place the bottle by her feet since she didn't have anywhere else to put it. As she bent over to place it on the floor, she hears a small clinking noise that made her blink in confusion.

(Huh?)

It seemed to come from inside the bottle. Curious, she looks inside the bottle to see a small, clear shard.

(What's a shard doing here...?)

 _'Well, this is interesting.'_

Nepgear could feel as if Kirigiri was grinning.

(Kirigiri-san, do you know what this is for?)

 _'...I have a hunch. But I haven't gathered enough information yet. We should save this for later.'_

(O-okay...)

She places the bottle back on the floor and stands back up to see Naegi speak, apparently just having had an epiphany. "Could the poison have been put into... **a protein container**?"

Togami smirks. "Exactly. The protein container and poison bottle **had their respective contents swapped**. By giving Oogami a certain something found at the scene of the crime, they got her to take the poison. That's her **real cause of death**!"

"Oh, yeah... Ogre did like to say that protein cured anything..." Hagakure says. "So, after she took she two blows to the head, she must've wanted to get some protein to make her feel better..."

"But the container she was given had poison in it, not protein," Togami finishes. "And I know exactly who it was that performed the swap, based on the evidence that was left in the chemistry laboratory."

From Togami's ElectroiD, a picture of some yellow-greenish powder on the floor by the chemistry laboratory's cabinets was shown, along with the obvious footprints on top of them. "With footprints as clear as those, it will be a simple task to determine who they are. I'm going to check everyone's shoes, right now! That will tell us exactly—"

"—They're mine..."

A weak voice cuts in through the discussion. Nepgear and the other students turn with disbelief on their faces at the source of the voice.

"Asahina-san...?" Naegi breathes out.

"You were all going to find out anyway, so I might as well say it myself..." Asahina mutters in defeat.

"I suspected as much," Togami says with a knowing sneer. "Those footprints could have only been made by tennis shoes... and the only ones among us who wear those type of shoes are you and Naegi."

 _'Incidentally, Naegi-kun and Asahina-san even have similar foot sizes.'_

(E-eh, is that so... Naegi-san's surprisingly that small, huh...)

"So you're saying... 'Hina-chi was the one who killed Ogre?!" Hagakure exclaims.

Naegi shakes his head, unwilling to accept the idea. "There's no way I can believe that... I mean... Asahina-san and Oogami-san were good friends...!"

"And that's **exactly** what gave her this chance," Togami interrupts. "Oogami wouldn't bat an eye at protein given to her by her good friend Asahina. She **exploited** their so-called friendship!"

Nepgear gazes at Asahina, who was looking down on the floor silently, her face blank. Nepgear remembers how devastated Asahina was when she found out that Oogami was the mole, how upset she got over those who accused or insulted Oogami, how she was driven to tears at the mere thought of having her best friend be badmouthed, how deeply grieved she was over Oogami's corpse. Nepgear saw all these things and saw nothing but a friend acting out of concern for her best friend.

That's why...

"No... That's not right... Asahina-san... would never do such a thing!"

"What, don't tell me you're also under the illusion that 'friends' wouldn't kill each other? This game doesn't operate on such ideals. In the end, every man only thinks of himself, in the same vein that she sacrificed Oogami for her own sake," Togami scoffs.

Nepgear shakes her head furiously, eyes shut, hands clenched to chest; her beliefs set. "No... Asahina-san looked upon Oogami-san as a dear friend...! I truly believe in that! ...Besides, Togami-san, how can someone like you understand the concept of friendship **when you don't have any to begin with?!** "

It isn't until Nepgear had yelled out those words for everyone in the room to hear is when realization starts to dawn on her.

"What..." Togami glares with such intensity that she might as well have been reduced to a puddle in the ground.

"Whoa, did Kirigiri-chi get mad?!" Hagakure gasps.

" **DEATH! DEATH!** I'LL CUT OFF THAT TONGUE AND ENSURE THAT IT NEVER SPEAKS A FOUL WORD TO MY WHITE KNIGHT EVER AGAIN!" Genocider Sho was screaming death threats, scissors in her hands.

"..." Naegi was in a silent shock, his nice boy nature most likely saving any thoughts of disbelief in his head.

"..." Asahina stared, surprised and shocked.

 _..._

(...!) Nepgear's hand shoots upwards to cover her mouth, reeling over the fact that **she just insulted Togami Byakuya**.

She could hear Monokuma snickering in the background. Sadistic little thing.

(W-w-why did I...!?)

Nepgear continued to question herself and run over the reasons on why she had dropped such a comment. She felt like her mouth had moved all on its own, and before she realized it she blurted out those words. She's been dropping unnecessary comments ever since this trial started! Just what could possibly be—

—Her affinity.

That's right! She had equipped herself with that **"Brutal Questioner"** affinity in that pre-trial preparations thing! She had selected it out of impatient frustration, but to think this is how the effects would manifest...!

...Then again, from the name itself she should have already realized how the effects would be... This was something she brought upon herself. Nepgear inwardly groans. If there was anything that was brutal, it was the way the world seemed to be hell-bent on screwing her over.

 _'...Nepgear, your sentiments aside,'_ Kirigiri starts to say in her usual calming tone, wanting to get things back on track, ' _I do agree on how it's too early to declare Asahina-san as the culprit; not unless we've gotten the full story. The question of the sealed room_ _ **still**_ _hasn't been answered.'_

A-ah, right, right... Nepgear agreed, slowly shaking herself out of these self-deprecating thoughts. Come to think of it, this trial always seemed to be on the brink of being finished, but because of the misleading suspects it would seem to go on even more... which only added to Nepgear's confusion.

Desperate to remove the awkward tension (that originated from her no less), she yells out, hoping her voice wasn't as shrilly as she thought it sounded, "U-um, anyway...! We can't declare Asahina-san the suspect...! Not just yet...! Not until we've heard how she managed to construct the sealed room...!"

"You still want to continue?" Togami questions.

Willing herself not to cower under Togami's hard gaze, she answers back, trying to control her stutters, "W-well, we can't just end the trial without knowing how she did it... i-it wouldn't be right..."

"I agree," Naegi speaks up, "We need to hear the full details so we can make sure of everything. I mean, it's our lives at stake here!"

Togami remains silent for a few seconds, before crossing his arms with a huff to show that he (reluctantly) consents with the idea. "Fine, but I still think it's rather useless at this point since it's already obvious who the culprit is. There **are** no other suspects... only she **could** have done it..."

Naegi nods, before turning to Asahina. "Asahina-san... please tell us. How did you do it?"

"W-well... First, I went to Cabinet C... and got the poison from there... Then, I grabbed one of the poison bottles from the cabinet and it slipped and fell... Then I went to Cabinet A, got the protein, and swapped the two... then I took the poison-filled container with me and left the chem lab... but I forgot that I left the the protein-filled poison bottle in Cabinet A, so that's why you all found out..."

As they were listening to Asahina, Nepgear could feel a spike of suspicion within her, as if she feels like Kirigiri was narrowing her eyes.

(What's wrong, Kirigiri-san? Is something not right with Asahina-san's story to you?)

 _'You remember what I had told you? Of how gestures and patterns of speech can indicate a person's behavior?'_

(Um, yes. But what does it have to do with this...?)

 _'Notice how Asahina-san constantly has lapses within her speech... and how she has a tendency to trail off, almost as if she sounds_ _ **uncertain**_ _...'_

(E-eh? So she's not just nervous?)

 _'Hmm, I wonder about that... Anyway, I'll put that aside for now. My concern is about her footprints. A culprit would normally try to cover up any trace of evidence to remove any suspicion towards them; instead she carelessly left them be.'_

(O-oh...!)

Well, if she had something to ask, might as well make use of her "helpful" affinity right now. "Asahina-san, if that's the case, then why didn't you cover up your footprints? It's not a very smart move to leave your obvious footprints out there in the open, isn't it?" Wait a minute, that last comment was totally unneccesary—

"W-well... I-I just happened to be so nervous that I forgot about it...!"

"No, Asahina-san... You said that you went straight to Cabinet A after taking the poison from Cabinet C... but that doesn't add up with the evidence," Naegi continues. "There are only one set of footprints present in the chem lab, and they lead **only to Cabinet A**. If you did head straight towards Cabinet C, you would have left footprints there as well, wouldn't you?"

"I...!" Asahina seemed to be at a loss for words.

"Wait... what's the meaning of this, Asahina?!" Even Togami appeared to be startled at the discovery, losing composure for once.

Nepgear watched the scene and the confusion that was piling up in the room, her own mind spinning to try to make sense of the situation. Asahina's testimony was inconsistent with the evidence... and her nervous explanation that Kirigiri had pointed out to be sounding uncertain a while ago... this could only mean...

"Asahina-san... were you lying?"

"...!" Asahina's reaction only confirmed it.

"Lying?!" Togami could be heard exclaiming in disbelief.

 _'Hm, I see you've caught on as well. Her footprints only showed that she went to retrieve something in Cabinet A and nothing else. However, that isn't the only inconsistency in her story.'_

(T-there's more...?!)

Nepgear could suddenly feel a burst of confidence coming from Kirigiri's emotions. It was flowing at an overwhelming rate; whatever it was that Kirigiri must have discovered must be big. She could practically feel her smirk on her side.

 _'All the pieces have fallen... I understand the situation completely now. But first... Nepgear, bring out the shard from the bottle. Present it as evidence. Mention that it was Togami-kun who even had the "honor" of giving it to us for good measure.'_

Nepgear had the need to blink at that last part, but complies with Kirigiri as she always did. She bends over and grabs the bottle that was standing by her feet. She tries to muster enough confidence to convey the words in the same confident manner Kirigiri would have wanted it to be, "Um... Before we move on, I would like to present **a new piece of evidence**... that will shed more light on Asahina-san's situation..."

"'New evidence'...?! Where did you obtain such a thing?!" Togami exclaims.

Oh, right, this is the part where Kirigiri wanted to give Togami a comeback... "Well, uh... Togami-san, **you** were actually the one who provided this evidence..."

"What!?"

Nepgear tries not to flinch and maintain a level gaze. "Um, yes... From the bottle... So, um, thank you for that...?"

Togami didn't want to have anything to do with her supposed gratitude. "...Spit it out! What was in the bottle?!" He demands through gritted teeth.

"Oh, um..." Nepgear tilts the bottle, making the shard fall out into her palm. "There was this shard that was hidden in the bottle... It appears to be... a shard of glass?"

 _'Recall where this type of glass was found.'_

Nepgear furrows her brows in thought, examining the shard closely, before her eyes widen.

(Ah! This type of glass...!)

"It's from the recreation room, isn't it?!"

"Why does it sound like you just realized it yourself, dude?" She could hear Hagakure comment.

"But that's strange..." Naegi starts to say, "If a glass shard from the rec room was found inside the poison bottle, then... that would mean it was actually in the rec room... before it was unsealed!"

Nepgear places a fist to her chin, thoughts racing. "But, since the bottle was found in the chemistry lab... then does this mean it was placed back there after the room was open...?!"

She gasps. The shards. The poison bottle and the protein container having apparently switched places. The **position**... the position of the shards... underneath the protein container... " **it wasn't there to begin with** "...

"The... the shards! They were placed underneath the protein container!" Nepgear gasps out.

Thankfully, Naegi catches on to her line of thinking. He fumbles for his ElectroiD as he releases the picture of the protein container with the shards underneath it. "That's right...! There were shards that were underneath the protein container! It means it has to have been placed there **after** the window was broken... after the room was unsealed!"

Togami's eye was twitching, and his glasses looked like they were about to fall off his face. "Then... what about the poison? Are you saying Oogami **didn't** take it because Asahina gave her the protein with poison inside?"

Naegi shakes his head. "No... she must have taken the the poison **straight** from the bottle..."

"You're saying... she ingested it... **fully aware** that it was poison?!" Togami exclaims in disbelief.

"So that means... Oogami-san was the one who went to the chemistry lab... to get it herself...?" Nepgear mutters.

"Preposterous!" Togami splutters out. "How do you know for sure that it was Oogami who did it?!"

 _'Nepgear, do you remember the state of Oogami-san's body?'_

(The state...?) Well, other than obviously being dead, though Nepgear could only summon a vague picture of Oogami's body in her mind as she had been far too busy panicking and trying not to throw up as she was examining her corpse; she lists off the details that she remembers from her examination: There was the wounds in her head, the blood from her mouth, the candy wrapper by her feet, and the powder that was on her shoe—

Nepgear feels herself gasp out loud again. "The powder! It's the **powder on her shoe**!"

"The powder?! What about the powder on her shoe—ngh!" Togami abruptly halts in his exclamation, having realized the truth as well.

"What?! What about the powder?!" Hagakure's head frantically looks about the people in the room, thrown out of the loop.

"Oogami had traces of powder on her shoe... the very same one that was from the chemical laboratory..." Togami grits out. "Which could only mean... she was present when the powder spilled... or most likely... the **orginator** of the spillage... That's what you're getting at, isn't it...?"

Naegi nods, a grim expression on his face at the truth. "That's right... Oogami-san was the one who had gone to the chem lab to get the poison, and drank it herself... In other words, a **suicide**. Most likely... to prevent anyone from interfering, she locked the door from the inside and effectively constructed the sealed room."

"But what reason would she have to kill herself?! It makes no sense! It's not a fact if **I can't comprehend it**!" Togami was muttering to himself. It was rare for Nepgear to see the normally cold and calculating Togami looked so distressed.

 _'Hm. Now would be a good time to give Togami-kun a good reminder on human emotions.'_

(A-ah, so you want me to say it to him...?! B-but I'm not very good at giving retorts...)

 _'Well, how about you question him instead, then?'_

Wha—! Kirigiri was taking advantage of her affinity! Isn't that kind of low?!

...But then again... Nepgear doesn't deny... That this would be well-placed on Togami's part...

(...)

Nepgear considers it for a couple of seconds, before taking a breath to mentally prepare herself.

"...Didn't I say so, Togami-san? About how your disregard for human emotions would come back to haunt you someday? Have you finally realized the significance of those words now?"

Whoa, even hearing it actually sounds kind of mean and condescending! Nepgear can't believe that something like that actually came out from her mouth.

It was pretty effective though, as Nepgear visibly saw Togami recoil from the remark. " **Ngggghhhh!** "

 **Nepgear gains the "Humiliator" Affinity!**

Oh joy, another affinity she never plans on using!

 _'Now, the only topic left to tackle is who was the one who had switched the poison bottle and protein container. But by this point, it's already obvious who it is. It's Asahina-san.'_

(Y-yeah... I still don't get why she did it, though...)

 _'Aren't you the one who's supposed to be directing that question at Asahina-san instead?'_

Oh, that's right... Nepgear sweatdrops. Her equipped affinity was suited for that very purpose. W-well, it should be fine! This was legitimate questioning...!

"Asahina-san, about the containers... you were the one who had switched them, didn't you? You, Naegi-san and I were the only ones present in the room immediately after it was unsealed. While Naegi-san and I were looking at Oogami-san's corpse, instead of calling the others right away, you used that opportunity to switch, didn't you? You deliberately tampered with the evidence to throw us off the investigation, right? Asahina-san, you willingly let yourself be a suspect, isn't it?!" Oh goodness, didn't that come off as too strong...?!

"..." Asahina was silent for a moment. Then: "That's right. I admit it. I messed with the evidence to make it look like I was the one who killed Sakura-chan."

That got shocked expressions out of all the students in the room.

"Asahina-san... why?" Naegi asks her in disbelief.

"Because... I wanted all of you to choose me as the killer so we could all get executed..." Asahina mumbles out. Her voice sounded so low, so defeated.

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait just a minute there! You sayin' you wanted to **drag us all to death with you**?! You be crazy, gurl! Crazier than a dude who jumps off a building to see if they could fly!" Genocider Sho exclaims (Nepgear could find the irony that a serial killer was accusing someone of being crazy).

Asahina refuses to make eye contact with any of them, choosing to stare at the floor. Nepgear could see her clench her fists tightly. "Because... I was really mad. **All of you killed her**."

"K-killed...?!" It is Nepgear who adds in with her own gasp.

"What kind of nonsense are you blabbing about?! Explain yourself, now!" Togami demands in frustration.

" **This** is what I mean!" Asahina yells out, and thrusts a crumpled paper from her pockets for everyone to see. There must have been a camera in the room that zoomed in on it as it was immediately displayed in the monitors as well for the others to get a closer look.

 **'I despair of everything. This constant fighting is ugly. It only serves to deepen my despair. If all I can do is wait for someone to kill me, I would rather end things by my own hand.'**

Nepgear feels an unsettling weight drop to her stomach, her face paling as she read the words on the letter.

"Sakura-chan told me after we left the infirmary... that she would talk with the three of you and try to reason with you guys... I couldn't help but feel worried, so I thought I'd check how things were going... but when I went to the rec room, I saw Sakura-chan there, bleeding... I wanted to get her some medical aid, but she told me she wanted some protein instead... But when I went to the chem lab to get some... I saw that spilled powder on the floor and realized she took something out of the poison cabinet... I ran back to the rec room as fast as I could... but by the time I got there... Sakura-chan was already..." Tears were starting to drip down from Asahina's eyes as she said her last statement, clutching the letter tightly in her hand.

"Asahina-san..." Naegi voices out his sympathies to her.

"Sakura-chan... she blamed herself for everything... She felt responsible so she wanted to talk with you guys... her friends. And yet you guys trampled all over her feelings! You people attacked her with no reason at all!" Asahina cries out.

Togami and Genocider Sho merely listened with a blank face, though Hagakure was looking down at the floor, feeling ashamed.

"That's why... when I found this note in front of the rec room... I got so mad... I thought that we had no right to live for doing such a thing to her and it'd be better off if we all died for her sake..." Asahina says, her words laced with sorrow. "I mean... Sakura-chan was a fragile human being too... She felt pain like everyone else... She was driven to so much despair that... she killed herself...!"

Nepgear stares at Asahina's cries and the letter she held in her hand with shaky eyes, as she clutches both of her hands together, anguished for Asahina and Oogami.

Was Oogami so grieved over her circumstances that she had resorted to kill herself...?

A sickening feeling starts to well up in Nepgear's stomach. She had talked with Oogami before. Maybe there was something she could have done to prevent it. She could have inquired Oogami more about it, to at least have alleviated her depression and prevented her from sinking into so much despair **that time** —

* * *

 _"My family has been preserving our traditions for centuries. Our dojo has taught us all about the strengthening of character; to train one's self in both spirit and body. I have engraved my dojo's honor to my soul. I have no intention of straying from those teachings," Oogami explains with fierce determination in her eyes._

 _Nepgear stared at Oogami in amazement. She was someone with high moral character. How honorable! It was pretty cool, actually._

* * *

(—Ah.)

Nepgear had only talked with Oogami once. But through that one conversation, Nepgear had sensed the immense dedication she had...

 _"...Onee-chan, how do you become so strong? ...How are you always so cheerful all the time? Even when things go bad?"_

 _"Hmmm, I dunno. I mean, I'm the main character! It's kind of my thing, y'know. Ahaha!" ... "Well, and I'd feel weird if I wasn't. It's who I am! I wouldn't be able to accept a me that isn't me! I'd be all OOC!"_

Nepgear feels a weak smile form on her lips. Of all the times to remember that now...

But, she certainly feels her spirits lift at the thought of it. It fills her with an equal resolve.

Her mind made up, and with her hands firmly clutched near her chest, Nepgear takes a deep breath and speaks. "No, Asahina-san... that's not right... I don't think Oogami-san would be that sort of person..."

"Huh...?" Asahina looks up at her, slightly bewildered.

"I know this sounds really presumptous of me... especially when I just talked with Oogami-san for one time only, but...! I'm not mistaken! Oogami-san had such determination in her eyes! There was no doubt about it! She was a strong person! Someone like me, who had met her **only once** , could sense that!"

"...!"

"And—!"

 _ **Now looks to be a good time to deliver the finishing blow.**_

The time and space seemed to have froze again.

Oh what the goodness! She was just about to say her final words and **then** she gets interrupted! She was getting into it!

"E-eh? The tutorial again...? Why...? Ah! If this is about my equipped affinities, I have a lot to say about it—!"

 _ **Oh, no no no no no no. This is about your**_ **blade** _ **.**_

"M-my blade...?"

 _ **It's your means of "offense", you could say. Now, look to your bottom left.**_

Confused, Nepgear looked to her left side, where the normally empty space had a shining sword hovering by her.

"Ooh, ooh! Is this a light saber?!" Nepgear exclaims with eager sparkling eyes. Any trace of her earlier grievances seemed to have vanished at the sight of a possible beam saber. She had missed holding one from Gamindustri!

 _ **Not really. But whatever floats your boat! Anyway, reach out for it and hold it.**_

Nepgear complies, and grabs the shining sword, testing out its grip. She had expected it to exude warmth from the light, but it felt normal as far as normal swords go. The shining must only be an effect. As she examines the sword, she spots the words **"Oogami's Will"** engraved into it.

"Ah, could this be...?" Nepgear recalls the sudden notification that popped up the last time.

 _ **Yes, you will obtain your "blades" at the appropriate times. And when I say that, I mean you may or may not obtain a blade in the first place. But that's not important! To get a move on, to wield your blade, press the triangle button... is what I would say if this were a game, but it's not, so just use it to cut through evidence you deem as false as you say your argument. Depending on the strength of your resolve will determine the "sharpness" of your blade and the success of your attack. So if your will is as flimsy like a piece of cardboard, then it will never even cut through paper! Use it at your own discretion. That will be all. Good luck.**_

"E-eh? W-wha..."

There was no response. Looks like Nepgear is all on her own now.

She stares at the sword she held in her hand. Though Nepgear had no idea what the heck was going on, all she knows that right now she needs to get her feelings across Asahina!

She takes a deep breath, grips the sword pulsing with light with both of her hands, sword placed in front of her—the same stance, just like she always does, when preparing herself to attack; Kirigiri suspiciously silent all the while—

"And, Asahina-san... I can honestly admit that throughout all the years that I have lived, few had come to burn with the same fierce resolve in her eyes! The look she always carried was that of a warrior—no, a **fighter**!"

—draws back her sword—

"Do you honestly think she was someone who was that **fragile**?"

—and swings—

"Someone who easily surrendered to **despair**?!"

A large yellow arc cleaved through the air, at Asahina's direction, and tears the paper she held in her hand in two.

 **BREAK!**

"Ah...!" Asahina gasps, staring at the torn letter in her hand. Genocider Sho tilted her head in confusion, Togami rose a questioning "WTF" brow, Hagakure was grasping his air and blubbering about how it must be "Ogre's spirit giving us a sign from the grave". Naegi blinked, mouth open.

Nepgear glances at her now empty hands. (Oh, it looks like it worked...!)

"..." Asahina continued to stare at the torn piece of paper, seemingly in deep thought. "...I know that... Sakura-chan was the strongest person I knew... I always viewed her as the strongest person that would never lose to anyone... And that's why... even I couldn't believe that she would end up doing such a thing to herself..." Asahina looks up, large droplets pouring from her eyes, voice hoarsely shouting, "And that's why it made it all the more frustrating! We had driven the strongest person I know to despair! That meant we must've really backed her into a corner! That even someone like Sakura-chan couldn't take it anymore!" Her voice started to drop to a low weak tone this time. "I don't want to accept such a thing either... but how else do you explain her letter...?"

At this, Monokuma gives a loud, exaggerated sigh. "Oh maaaan. **You guys** are getting waaayyy too hung up on that letter. It's like watching a cheesy soap opera! In a way, I'm both kinda weirded out and flattered at how much appreciation **you guys** give to some silly little scribble I did on the spot."

That caught everyone's attention.

"Wait... what do you mean?" Asahina asks weakly.

Monokuma gives a nonchalant shrug, despite the student's shocked faces. "That letter that you got was a **fake**. A forgery, a phony knockoff! Fakity fakity fake!" He takes out a folded letter that seemingly came out from his pockets (He had those?). "This right here is Oogami Sakura's **real** suicide note!"

"Eh...? T-then this..."

"Oh, that's just something I switched in!" Monokuma replies with a wink. "Anyway! Wanna hear it? I can narrate it with my totally bea-yoooo-tifuuul voice!" Monokuma opens up the letter in front of him, and clears his throat before he starts to read it. "Ahem..."

 **'My dear friend Asahina: there is something I must share with you. Though it pains me to do so in this fashion, it is something I would like you to know. I kept this a secret from you because I knew you would try to stop me. This is... my final wish.**

 **As you have already been made aware, I served under the mastermind as his mole. The mastermind had initially approached me on the first night of this bizarre new lifestyle and professed to have taken hostage of my clan's dojo and ordered me to submit myself into his service. It has been under my clan's care for 300 years... I felt the need to protect it and could not allow it to fade away in this generation...**

 **It was from that sentiment my weakness flowed... and by which I was driven to comply with the mastermind's demands... He bid me to take someone's life.**

 **He was concerned with the equilibrium forming among the students... and that the first murder would not occur... however neither he and I had predicted that Maizono Sayaka would take action before I was about to. Consquently, my orders changed, and I was to remain on standby and wait for the equilibrium to form again. But as our lives continued... my resolve shook. I could not betray those who considered me their friend. Which is why, I fully intended to accept all ill will as a way of atoning for my betrayal.**

 **But I was naive... The situation reached a point where I alone was no longer able to handle it. I intend to take full responsibility for my mistakes, and resolved to comply with the mastermind's orders.**

 **I will take a life... Only, that the life I intend to take... is my own. My death will not only free the hostages, but will also extuinguish the flame of conflict before it drives any of you to murder.**

 **Each and every one of you is worth that price. You, my dear friends, give my sacrifice meaning. You are the first friends I have ever had.**

 **Asahina, whatever it takes, I want you to survive and live on beside our friends.**

 **Farewell, my dear friend.**

 **-Oogami Sakura'**

Nepgear felt like she was about to tear up after hearing those words. (Oogami-san... she really cared about everyone so much...!)

 _'You were right, Nepgear.'_

(Huh...?)

 _'Oogami-san was strong. So strong, that she willingly chose death to end the conflict. No normal person could possibly attain that degree of selflessness.'_

(Yes...) Nepgear nods solemnly. Though she felt like she made a complete embarrassment of herself in the trial, she doesn't regret defending Oogami's resolve in the end. It was the truth.

If Nepgear was only about to tear up, it was nothing compared to Asahina, who had broken out into sobs at hearing Oogami's genuine words to her. "I... I didn't know how Sakura-chan felt... I feel so ashamed to call myself her friend...! And to think I nearly killed us all because of it...!"

" **You** were the one who made such a mess out of things based on **your** own interpretation over some silly little letter that didn't even have her name on it!" Monokuma accuses. "I'd say all the blame falls on you! I'm sure everyone agrees with me on that one! Right? Riiiight?"

"What are you talking about?! This is all **your** fault! You're the one who made that fake note for Asahina-san to see!" Naegi retorts angrily.

Monokuma merely tilts his head, looking more curious about Naegi's reaction than anything. "Hmmm? I didn't do anything wrong. I just spiced things up a bit! She's the one who went to the off-the-rails conclusion on her own and tried to kill everybody! Because of that, she rendered Oogami-san's sacrifice totally useless! **Oogami-san died for nothing!** "

 **"YOU'VE GOT THAT WRONG!"**

There was so much intensity in Naegi's voice, that Nepgear could pretty much see a bullet shoot out from Naegi's direction and smashed Monokuma's statement to pieces. Monokuma took a small step backwards too, from the surprise and impact of the attack!

Nepgear blinked. Wait, the entire environment had seemed to have flickered into a completely still space, and time seemed to have slowed down for a moment there... Nepgear's eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. **She saw that actually happen?!**

 _'...'_

"Oogami-san didn't die for nothing! She reminded us that we aren't enemies that are supposed to despise each other! But that we're friends... allies... that are supposed to be against **you!** " Naegi declares, complete with an epic finger point.

"H-he's right, dude..." Hagakure starts to say. "Things turned out like this because of our misplaced hate for Ogre... None of us has the right to blame 'Hina-chi!"

"...By making sacrificial lambs of themselves, Asahina and Oogami have rejected the very foundation of this game. There's no reason for me to participate in a game that's lost its source of excitement. I withdraw," Togami mutters out.

(I don't quite get it, but I think that's Togami-san's way of saying he's on our side...) Nepgear can't help but smile a bit. She's glad. That means Togami isn't a hopeless jerk after all.

"But don't get me wrong. I'm not acting out of some sweet sense of sentimentality. This is my way of retaliating against the mastermind for trying to think he can try to manipulate me!" Togami adds. For some reason, that sounded awfully tsundere-like...

"If my White Knight says so, then I'll follow too! 'Sides, there's a chance that the mastermind's a steaming hot hunk of man meat that I can sink my scissors into!" Genocider Sho gleefully says.

"Everyone...!" Naegi looks joyful at the support his fellow companions are showing.

Nepgear blinks. O-oh, that's right, she still hasn't said her part yet!

To save Nepgear from her inner panicking once again, it is Kirigiri who places her input. ' _I believe this should be the time to vote. There should be no one who gets executed for this trial as Oogami-san is both the victim and the culprit.'_

(Yeah...!)

"S-so now that we know the truth, we can place our votes! Thanks to Oogami-san, there should be no one who gets executed at this trial! E-everything should be over now...!"

Monokuma twitches at the sickeningly camaraderie mood in the room and lets out a huff. " **You guys** are lame. No fun at all! But whatever. It's part of tradition, so we gotta do it, even if it's just for show."

At his words, a long stand rises up from the floor boards in front of them, with a small monitor and a switch attached on top of it.

"It's kind of a pain, but please cast your ballots using the switch in front of you. Gee, I wonder who the **blackened** 's going to be? Will your choice be oh so right or oh so wrooong..." Monokuma didn't even sound like he was putting any effort into what he was saying.

(Um... so how do I...?) Slightly at a loss on what to do, Nepgear moves the switch that was provided and sees that it could only be moved either to the left or right, moving on with each zoomed in angle of the students from the monitor. The monitor seemed to be acting like a camera, only that the screen was showing the words " **Make an accusation!** " in it. the She could sense that Kirigiri was about to explain it to her, before she eventually grasps the concept and lands on Oogami's picture and selects it.

Once everyone placed their votes, the screen switched to a neon-lit logo of the words " **Monokuma Vote** ". A slot machine appeared that had each of the student's faces on it, and eventually all three slots lined up to show Oogami's face, then the machine lit up in a celebratory manner as if someone had won a prize. The stand suddenly started spitting out Monokuma coins, and Nepgear jumped a bit in place and tried to gather as much coins as she could in her hands (call her greedy, but she needs these!). Out of the corner of her eye, she could only see Naegi being the one actively collecting the coins in his pockets as well, did this mean that it was only she and Naegi who actually made use of the Monokuma coins after all?

Afterwards, the slot machine stopped pouring out coins and the monitor-and-switch stand went back and vanished into the floor boards again. As Nepgear was busy pocketing the coins she had in her N-Gear holder (it's going to get harder to walk with all this weight), she hears Monokuma sigh.

"Correeect... **Oogami Sakura** was murdered by **Oogami Sakura**... Geez, so anti-climatic." A malicious grin suddenly made its way into his face, immediately putting them on guard. "Buuut... are **you guys** really sure that no one's going to get executed today?"

Asahina gasps fearfully. "Are you... going to kill me...?"

"No way! Asahina-san wasn't the actual culprit! That's not fair!" Naegi protests.

Monokuma waves a dismissive hand. "Nah, nah, settle down, kiddies. I'm not gonna punish any of **you guys** just 'cuz the **blackened** 's already dead! Still... it'd be a waste not to use the special punishment I prepared... so I invited **an equally special guest**!"

"Special... guest...?" Nepgear wonders out loud, looking as confused and apprehensive as the rest. She doesn't know why, but she's got a really bad feeling about this...

"A'ight, let's get this ball rollin'! It's **punishment time**!"

The monitors on the screen flickered, and displayed an image of a very familiar face.

Nepgear feels a lump in her throat at recognizing the figure. "Alter... Ego-san...?" She chokes out.

(Why—?)

The camera eventually zoomed out to show Alter Ego with his laptop placed on a piece of concrete in the center of what it appeared to be a mock construction site. Seconds later, a large bulldozer with a muscular Monokuma robot wearing a construction helmet operating it literally bulldozes through the scenery, stopping right in front of the laptop.

 **A DOZER MASTER**

The crane lifts up high into the air... and repeatedly smashes into the laptop, chunks and pieces flying in different directions. It eventually molds the remains of the laptop into a round ball, and stamping it with Monokuma's signature red eye and muzzle before the bulldozer leaves.

The screen fades to black, leaving the gaping students who had witnessed it in the room to react.

"Ahh, now that felt **much** better! Nothing like a good **punishment** to calm the nerves! Now all I need is some good cup o' ramen!" Monokuma sighs with content.

Naegi gasps out, "H-how did Alter Ego manage to get found out?!"

Monokuma giggles. "Ohoho... I gotta admit, I was pretty surprised myself... A little birdie in the control room sang to me that there was an interference in the system, and when I went to take a look, I found this little laptop in the bathhouse! I've gotta give you sneaky little bastards credit though, since you placed him in the one area that doesn't have any security cameras! Pretty clever! But nothing gets past this bear! My eyes have perfect hunting vision!"

Nepgear flinches as Monokuma turns his gaze towards her, his red eye gleaming at her in a mocking manner. "Next time, **you guys** might wanna assign a different bodyguard! One who isn't as gullible and obvious as this **Miss Terrible Liar**!" Monokuma cackles.

Nepgear was very aware of the gazes that were starting to fall on her. "I..."

That night... there **was** a reason for Monokuma's timely appearance during her conversation with Alter Ego in the baths... He had sensed when Alter Ego was hacking into the ElectroiD's connection... Then when she left the area, Monokuma must have checked out the bathhouse and discovered Alter Ego there...

"I... I'm sorry... I didn't realize..." Nepgear whimpers out, ashamed of her careless actions.

"Ehh, it was about time I sniffed him out anyway. I already let him give you enough information as it is! Wouldn't want **you guys** knowing more spoiler-y details than you should have!"

"So you were already aware from the beginning?!" Togami questions.

"It was fun seeing **you guys** scamper around like sneaky little mice, though there's gotta be a limit to those things! But **you guys** were trying so hard, so I figured I'd give you little rascals a little reward for your efforts," Monokuma explains cheerily. "Sooo? Are **you guys** angry? Frustrated? If there's anyone to blame for your loss, there's an obvious scapegoat right here! Blame her, hate her, point all those fingers at her, and start the fun killing all over again!"

"That's enough!" Naegi shouts. "We're **not** going to kill each other anymore! Oogami-san's life... and even Alter Ego's life...! We won't tarnish the sacrifices they made by being swept along your plans! Our **friends'** deaths... will make us even stronger!"

"Upupupu... is this Naegi Makoto's super rare legendary display of anger I'm witnessing? Still... considering a laptop as a friend? You one of those weirdos who think everything's got a soul? That's a whole level of pitiful, even for you, Naegi-kun," Monokuma remarks with a mocking grin as Naegi glares at him. "Welp, doesn't matter. There's no point in me staying here. It's about time I jet!"

* * *

Nepgear headed back to their dorms with heavy steps (literally, Monokuma gave her the lump of metal that used to be Alter Ego as a parting gift that heartless little demon) as she eventually arrives in front of Kirigiri's room. Not everyone had decided to go back into their rooms, as the time showed that it was about late in the afternoon, so each of them dispersed to go about their own business once they exited the elevator. But as for Nepgear, going through that trial wore her out mentally and emotionally, so she was hoping to return to their room to get some rest and do a lot of thinking.

Naegi had trailed after her silently, as he must've had the same plans to retreat into his room to rest. His and Kirigiri's room were right next to each other, so they ended up going in the same direction. He would keep glancing at the downcast expression Nepgear had on her face once every few minutes during their quiet walk, and out of concern he decides to speak up before she could enter her room.

"Kirigiri-san?" Nepgear turns to look at him in response. "Is something wrong? You've had this really unhappy look on your face until now."

"Ah." Nepgear diverts her gaze towards the floor. "It's just that... I can't help but feel guilty... About Oogami-san and Alter Ego-san... I feel like I could've done more to prevent their deaths..."

Knowing that Oogami had gone to the chemistry laboratory to get the poison for herself, she recalled how she had seen her lingering there the last time they had talked. Nepgear hadn't thought too much of it back then, assuming that she must've went there for protein she liked so much. But looking back at the serious look on her face back then... perhaps that was already the moment she was planning her death. If she had pushed through with talking with her, maybe she could have found about her plan and prevent her from acting out on it. And if she wasn't such a terrible liar, she could have prevented Monokuma from discovering Alter Ego.

"Whenever I think about all the possible things I could have done... it frustrates me. I feel... useless." Bitter thoughts started to resurface in Nepgear's head—of the constant reminders of how she constantly falls short of everything, how she's never good enough—

A spike of heavy emotion rose up within her, causing her discomfort as it clashed with her own, as they were emotions that weren't on her side. It seemed to be... showing disapproval? Kirigiri's—?

"Kirigiri-san, I don't think that's being fair."

Nepgear's head jolts up to face him in surprise and confusion. "Not fair...? What is?"

"Thinking about the possibilities... of how we could have ended up with a different outcome... is something all of us have thought about too. None of us wanted people to die... none of us wanted all of this suffering to happen. The guilt and the regrets haunt me every night that I can't even sleep... and the weight of it all is enough to sink me into despair... That's why it's not fair that only you think you're being brought with this burden! All of us are united under this one load! That's why all the more we should push past this despair and continue to move on forward together and make sure that something like this **never** happens again!"

"Naegi-san..."

He gives her a reassuring smile. "Besides, you said so yourself. **'Let's just make the most of the present we have now!'** "

"Ah..."

That's right. She said that some time ago, didn't she? She had said it to cheer Naegi up, but he's saying those exact same words to her now... except the conviction in his words was on a completely different level from what she had...

Ahh, no wonder he's the protagonist. She might just fall for him even more, really—Wait, no **crush** yeah that's what she meant—

Nepgear thanks Naegi immensely for his words. She feels her earlier negative emotions had vanished and replaced with a new sense of relief. He seemed to actually be sheepish at the amount of gratitude she was giving him, and dismisses it as merely repaying her for the amount of help she always gave him during investigations (that was mostly Kirigiri who was helping him, though). After a few words of encouragement to each other, they bid each other farewell and head inside their rooms.

 _'Well, at least you certainly seem to be feeling better now,'_ Kirigiri remarks as Nepgear closes the door.

(A-ah, yes!) Nepgear could feel herself flush slightly, embarrassed at Kirigiri having seen her in such a state.

 _'What Naegi-kun said was true. If you keep dwelling on the what ifs and could have beens, then what will that accomplish? Choosing to remain stagnant will only serve to deepen your regret in the future.'_

Nepgear nods. (Yeah... I get that now. I felt so terrible that it was my fault that Alter Ego-san got discovered and kept blaming myself for it... That maybe I should've looked for another alternative instead of letting him hack into the connection...)

 _'Alter Ego himself was the one who suggested the idea. Being a highly intelligent program himself, I'm sure he was aware of how the system network functioned and the consquence that would have resulted from his actions._

(...! So you're saying... he willingly risked his life in order to send me the information...?!)

Nepgear feels like she's about to burst into tears on the spot. Ahhh, like Oogami, he also sacrificed himself for her sake! She feels like she doesn't deserve this much.

Filled with a brand new sense of determination, Nepgear marches towards the table in the room that was stacked with numerous capsules, pulls out the chair, and decides to get to work.

(Also, it was about time she put down Alter Ego's ball of lump—that thing was heavy)

...

 ***BZZZZ* *BZZZ* *WHZZZ* *CRRRRCK* *WHRRRR***

...

Nepgear didn't have her usual materials or tools like she had back in her laboratory, so she had to improvise with the materials she had on-hand. Nepgear was grateful that the MonoMono Machine possessed such next-generation items (the hi-tech raygun was something worth being bought over and over again) to the oddly placed knick-knacks (the velocity measurement machine was also worth dismantling) and other random items (the vise certainly helped).

Nepgear would have wanted to make use of the other items present in the School Store, but the last time she tried to take one, Monokuma came and gave her an earful on how getting an item without paying was against the school rules and going against the school rules was equivalent to death (AKA punishment time). So she really had no other choice but to only use the MonoMono Machine. Geez, talk about blatant product bias!

While working, she had been creating so much noise that the one time she emerged from her room to buy more items from the School Store, Naegi had came out of his room as he was curious about the weird noises coming from her room next door. Upon learning that she was working on her "little project", he gave her some items that he bought himself in an effort to help her (bless his soul).

For the rest of the day, she worked inside the room until evening. Kirigiri, despite her vast knowledge; was no expert on technology, so she merely kept quiet and observed. If Monokuma was seeing everything she was doing, he was making no move to stop her.

...

 ***BZZZZ* *BZZZ* *WHZZZ* *CRRRRCK* *WHRRRR***

...

Nepgear sighed, an arm propped into the table with her face leaning on it, as she idly examined the small, clear crystal-shaped item in her other hand. As expected, from what she saw in the instruction manual, it took her only a few hours to assemble it since it was only a small device; big enough to cover her entire palm. However, this "share machine" was still incomplete. Initially, she had been planning to work on the machine as soon as she obtained the final instruction pages so she could've worked on it in one go. But now she's at a loss how to take it from here, since she doesn't know what kind of parts or materials she'd have to use, as Alter Ego "died" along with the instructions.

Unless... if she wracked her desperate brain enough... she could try and make the modifications on her own. From what she could determine from the framework, it's going to need a base to gather the share energy in... Oh, but she'd have to modify it so it could handle or trigger a space distortion... maybe she could use the raygun's technology again for that...?

Once again, Nepgear sighs. All this speculating, but she's not sure if they're correct. Her mind was really tired from everything that had happened today. The death, the corpse inspecting, the angst, affinity issues, Class Trial drama...

Speaking of the Class Trial, Nepgear just feels relieved that there were no complications that had risen from the reveal that she was behind Alter Ego's discovery...

* * *

 _"..."_

 _"..."_

 _Togami gazes at the two quiet females with a scoff. "Why such unsightly looks on your faces? The Class Trial is already over. We have no need to dawdle in this place any longer."_

 _Asahina still looks reluctant to leave. "B-but..."_

 _"What, don't tell me you still feel responsible? Don't delude yourself. Your attempt at creating a 'mystery' is nothing to write home about and is_ _ **nowhere**_ _near enough to kill_ _ **me**_ _." Togami fixes his gaze at Nepgear this time. "And where did that silly bravado of yours go? Mere minutes ago you were brazenly insulting me, then at the moment that bear unraveled a fault of yours, you get reduced to nothing but a cowering fool. Pathetic. Know that the loss of Alter Ego is nothing but a minor setback to my plans. I haven't fallen_ _ **that**_ _far from grace to be affected by the likes of this."_

 _Both Asahina and Nepgear raise their heads and gaze towards Togami with a mixture of amazement and disbelief. Sure, he was being his usual arrogant degrading self, but somehow, his words seemed to be... less insulting, if that was possible. It lacked the harshness that was normally included in his tone. If they weren't mistaken, it almost sounded like as if he was... trying to cheer them up?_

 _Genocider Sho misinterprets their amazed gazes for something else. "Oh no no no no no no you don't, you harpies! I won't let anyone_ _ **interfere**_ _with my romance with my White Knight!" She growls._

 _"W-what?! Who the heck would fall for that... four-eyed lemon?!" Asahina exclaims. Nepgear blinks at her comment. It was... startlingly appropriate..._

 _"Four-eyed... lemon?!" Togami repeats, stunned._

 _"Just saying it like the way I see it, four-eyed lemon!" Asahina retorts._

 _Togami twitches. "Sounds like someone's asking... to be thrown out with the trash..."_

 _"More demeaning comments? Seriously? Man, Kirigiri-san was right. You_ _ **have**_ _no friends!"_

 _"Nggghhh! Not fair! I wanna have an insult war with my White Knight, too!"_

* * *

Nepgear feels herself smile slightly at the memory. It showed that there was a chance that everyone could get along, though they were prone to a couple of arguments every once in a while.

Still, a frown starts to make way into her face as she recalls how she had performed earlier. Some part of her can't help but feel a bit conscious of the way she had been so emotional during the trial. She had let her emotions overwhelm her, when it's facts and evidence that are supposed to matter in those kind of situations.

 _'It's not necessarily a bad trait to have. The way you give such a high amount of consideration to other people's feelings and circumstances... shows that you possess a high amount of **empathy** towards others_ _. It allowed you to discern the person's_ _ **genuine**_ _behavior and reached the truth; whereas Togami-kun could not. His indifference to people's emotions clouded his judgment in that a human being is capable of acting selflessly.'_

(Ah, is that so...) Nepgear doesn't know to react to sudden praises, especially from Kirigiri of all people.

 _'Hm, I can definitely see why you get along with Naegi-kun now. But I'd still advise you two not to get carried away and instead let_ _ **your**_ _emotions cloud your own logical judgment. It could prove to be fatal in dire circumstances.'_

Nepgear nods. (Yes, I understand...)

She gazes back at the share machine in her hand thoughtfully, eyes starting to drop. She just doesn't like the idea of all this heartless killing around her.

Friends killing each other was especially—

* * *

 _There was a nation called Planeptune. From there, a Candidate was born._

 _As she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a girl. Her smile was the brightest thing she'd ever seen._

 _Their Oracle (mother) introduced her as her big sister. She looks at the girl and smiles. This was a sister she would no doubt come to love (conditioned to love)._

 _Eventually, she got to see the world. She met all of her people in her nation, met all of her sister's friends. As she looks at each and every one of them, her heart fills with warmth. Her heart comes to cherish them._

 _This was a wonderful world. She hopes she will continue to live peacefully like this forever (she was so naive back then)._

 _..._

 _Shares had been decreasing lately. There was a rising group that was quickly gaining influence in every nation. They were called ASIC._

 _Their influence grew and grew and grew, until it finally reached to a point that they were starting to threaten the entirety of Gamindustri itself. They wanted to revive their goddess, they said. The Deity of Sin. Someone who must not be revived at all costs, Histoire had said._

 _She begged to come along with her sister. No matter what, she didn't (couldn't) want to leave her sister's side._

 _Though reluctant, everyone agreed._

 _..._

 _Too strong._

 _They were too strong._

 _They hadn't imagined that their strength and influence had grown to this extent._

 _She could only watch helplessly as the goddesses fell one by one, even her own sister._

 _The ominous blade of the scythe loomed before her eyes._

 _(THERE WAS PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN)—_

 _ **Her** taunts and mocking voice had plagued her endlessly in her empty slumber._

 _..._

 _When she had woken up, there was no time for rest._

 _Save the Mascots. Save the nation. Save the goddesses. Save Gamindustri._

 _"You are the only one (you were the only one) who can save (was saved)."_

 _..._

 _They rescued their sisters. She thought everything would be fine now._

 _As long as they worked together, everything will be okay (no still so naive)._

 _Together, they could save the world._

 _(Working together wasn't enough)_

 _..._

 _To save the world, obtain the sword._

 _Only one could wield. She, out of the goodness of her heart, offered herself and her sister for the role (burden)._

 _No one agreed. She watched as their friends left, ultimately deciding their fate._

 _..._

 _She didn't want this. (First Green)_

 _She didn't want to do this. (Then White)_

 _She didn't want things to have come to this. (And Black)_

 _She didn't want to kill anyone. (Finally, Purple)_

 _A girl's anguished cries resound throughout the darkness of the red-purplish sky._

 _She grieves, refusing to be comforted._

 _..._

 _She had obtained it. The peace that they had all been striving for._

 _For this peace, she struggled, dragged, pulled, killed, screamed, grieved, agonized, anguished, murdered, cried, and sacrificed in order to achieve this ending._

 _It's (not) okay, she thinks. She'll be (not) okay, she thinks. She'll do her best to make this a great nation. For her people's sake. For the world's sake. For her friends' sake. For her sister's sake._

 _..._

 _Not everyone adapted being merged into one nation so easily. There were a lot of complaints. But through all of her hardwork, she ensured everyone's satisfaction._

 _But then years flew by, and unrest grew within the people._

 _Shares dropped, people left, until finally there was no one left for this girl to serve._

 _It's always the same thing, they said._

 _It's too boring, they said._

 _ **She's**_ _too boring, they said._

 _("Without conflict, there can be no competition, no advancement")_

 _She watches the nation she had shed tears and bled for crumble into nothingness before her eyes._

 _Everyone was gone._

 _In the end, there was only her._

 _No Vert to dress her up in outfits, no Blanc to read novels with, no Rom and Ram to draw childish drawings with, no Noire to give her useful advice, no Uni to play arcade games with, no IF to throw sarcastic comments at her, no Compa to cook with, no Histoire to lecture her, no Neptune to brighten her day._

 _For the first time in her life, she felt truly alone._

 _It was at that time, she reached full despair._

 _..._

 _"Lookie here. Another actual ruined nation! This is totally freakin' awesome."_

 _"So your people abandoned you too."_

 _She looks up, and sees the girl bearing the same set of empty eyes as she does._

 _..._

 _..._

 _..._

 _ **"So, you saw everything."**_ _Empty purple eyes stared back at her._

* * *

Nepgear woke up with a gasp.

 **"What the goodness was that?"**

* * *

 **Ah, it looks like Nepgear's affinities finally had some use for once. You can bet that she'll never be equipping them ever again. The self-aware tutorial neglected to mention to her that selecting "Skills" were completely optional, but oh well, that's how everything turned out. Oh, by any chance are any of you interested that I make a bonus chapter on omakes about how the rest of Nepgear's affinities would have looked? I can totes do that, for the lulz it can bring.**

 **The ominous monologue bit was kinda a parody to, as TVTropes calls it, Naegi's "ridiculously overblown soliloquy" before every Class Trial begins. Because seriously, I know that their lives are at stake, but even I think that whole "death vs life something something" is a bit... overdramatic? Unless Naegi actually has a surprisingly eloquent side of him. There's this weird head-canon in my head that maybe it's from Fukawa's or Togami's influence or something, but eh. Oh, and I also figured that Naegi shouting "SORE WA CHIGAU YO" every time would sound tiring and repetitive from him, so I thought I'd only use it for when he needs to be particularly epic.**

 **Also, corrected some of the honorifics. Kirigiri calls Togami as "Togami-kun" and not "Togami-san" as I had suspected, because there's no way she'd be that polite towards Togami. Either I got misled with another sub or my memory, but bleh.**

 **On that note, I'm sure some of you are wondering...**

 _ **Why is it that Kirigiri doesn't address Nepgear with an honorific?**_

 **Well, Kirigiri can gauge on how rather young Nepgear looks, so she doesn't feel the need to address her with "-san".**

 _ **Why does Nepgear also address Alter Ego as "Alter Ego-san" despite being an A.I.?**_

 **Nepgear, kind soul that she is, sees that Alter Ego is sentient and feels like he's also a human being and therefore uses an honorific with him.**

 **Another good question to ask is why am I taking the use of suffixes so seriously, but my Japanese weebo tendencies felt that it wouldn't be right if I failed to give even the proper honorifics, so yeah.**

 **Anyways, hope you at least managed to finish the entire thing. Just think of it as a bonus for the months that I was absent! ...Then again, the Class Trial was just a summarized version of the actual thing, so I dunno if there's any actual enjoyment from that. But that's the most I'll be making out of following canon events. For now.**

 **While I leave that particular foreshadowing behind, I'll take this as my cue to leave.**

* * *

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(oh wait it's not completely over yet?)

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* * *

 _The Thoughts of Asahina Aoi_

* * *

She was frustrated.

The moment that it was revealed that Sakura was a mole, everyone started treating her differently. Even though it was obvious how she felt really guilty about it! It wasn't her fault; she understands that stupid mastermind was the one who forced her to do it. And yet they were treating her as some dangerous new monster that needed to be killed right away! (Thanks for that, Togami, you jackass)

Some part of her saw that at least Naegi and Kirigiri weren't hating on Sakura as the others did. That should've brought her some relief, but had been so consumed by her frustration and own disbelief to care.

...

When she saw Sakura, slumped over by the chair in the rec room, not moving, not responding... she refused to believe it. She desperately didn't want to accept it.

She wanted to confirm it with her own eyes—that Sakura was truly dead. So she had raced all over the school, until she found Naegi and Kirigiri. She pleaded with them to take a look at Sakura's state in the rec room.

Once she saw the reality of it all—(Sakura-chan was really dead, that stupid corpse announcement said so, and as stupid as that thing was, it never lied)—she felt her mind shut down. There was a bitterness that was growing in her heart as she recalled the note that she picked up; the suicide note that held all of Sakura's hopeless feelings as she died.

It consumed her into a hatred that lashed out, screaming, everyone needed to die. They all killed Sakura. They drove her to this despair. To atone for what they had done for her, they all deserved to die, so she'll replace evidence to ensure it happens.

Then Kirigiri told her of how she thought how amazing Sakura was. Of her character, of her strength, of her **resolve**.

It was there that she had started to doubt.

Would she honestly kill this person too—the innocently amnesiac Kirigiri who had seen for herself the amazing, gentle character that Sakura was and mourned for her passing? Even Naegi, she recalled, was a nice guy that didn't deserve to be caught up in this.

Could she really push through with the idea of killing these people as well?

So during the trial, she hesitated.

She would see for herself first on how the entire events happened (Hagakure and Fukawa's story pissed her off, Togami always pissed her off) before acting through with anything else.

The truth was starting to reveal itself (dammit Naegi and his surprisingly cool deductive skills), and she couldn't keep up the act anymore.

She didn't know how to take things from there—at least until Kirigiri had spoken up. Though she acted so weird during the trial (man having amnesia must be really rough), her words hit her hard. Sakura was the strongest; she of all people should have known that due to being her close friend. She knows that. She's aware. The Sakura she knew would never give up.

Her thoughts and feelings had clashed together and threw her into a confused mess—until Monokuma went ahead and said how the letter she received was a fake.

Hearing Sakura's real words... her real thoughts... She felt horrible. She claimed to have understood her friend, and yet she nearly ended up costing the lives of innocent people (yeah, even Togami, as much as she hated to admit).

Sakura considered these people her friends. When she looks at the people who defended her and witnesses Togami's half-assed attempt to cheer her up, she knows this is the truth.

Sakura told her to live on with her friends. Though her death was a tragic loss, through her death made everyone realize how they weren't supposed to be against each other.

So she'll move forward. She'll fight. She won't let Sakura's sacrifice be in vain. Sakura would have wanted this. After all, she recalls a saying that Sakura had given her once:

 **"Real strength only reveals itself when one is faced with great turmoil. Therefore, I shall always tread a thorny path!"**

* * *

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 **CHAPTER 04: ALL ALL APOLOGIES**

 **END**


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